Ethical Obligations To Patients

Background: Obstetrician-gynecologists have the ethical obligation to ensure that every patient receives clinical management of her condition that is supported in deliberative clinical judgment. An essential component of this obligation is the continuous .improvement of the safety and quality of patient care.Material and Methods: This study is article reviewResults: Obstetrician-gynecologists should engage patients in decision making that meets the ethical requirements of informed consent. The professional virtue of integrity and the ethical principles of beneficence and respect for autonomy guide this process. The obstetrician-gynecologist’s role in the informed decision-making process should not be distant and impersonal, but engaged and supportive. The obstetrician-gynecologist should begin by identifying, on the basis of deliberative clinical judgment, the medically reasonable alternatives for managing the patient’s condition. That a form of clinical management is technically possible is not sufficient to consider it to be medically reasonable. There is no ethical obligation to offer such clinical management. The obstetrician-gynecologist should then present the medically reasonable alternatives to the patient and provide an unbiased description of each alternative along with the clinical benefits and clinical risks of each. This disclosure does not need to include theoretical benefits and risks, which can be distracting. The determination that a form of clinical management is medically reasonable is an expert clinical judgment and therefore not a lay judgment. There are two clinical contexts in which the obstetrician-gynecologist is ethically justified in making recommendations. The first is when there is only one medically reasonable alternative or when, among two or more medically reasonable alternatives, one is clinically superior in deliberative clinical judgment.Sometimes, among medically reasonable alternatives, no one is clearly superior in deliberative clinical judgment. In such clinical circumstances, the obstetrician-gynecologist should be cautious in making a recommendation and explain the basis for doing so, which could include an unbiased evaluation of the obstetrician-gynecologist’s clinical experience. Making ethically justified recommendations is not disrespectful of patient autonomy or inconsistent with shared decision making, because such recommendations empower the woman with the valued input of the obstetrician-gynecologist s Professional clinical judgment. Obstetrician gynecologists in leadership positions have the ethical obligation to identify and advocate for the resources required.Conclusion: obstetrician-gynecologists have the ethical obligation to society to support the health of the entire population of patients. Obstetrician-gynecologists have the ethical obligation to advocate for women and children. Obstetrician gynecologists in leadership positions have the ethical obligation to coordinate advocacy of their professional .colleagues for women and children.