Ethical competence as a component of physician education

Abstract

In practice, a doctor constantly deals with difficult ethical situations, which requires optimal decisions. From weighing risks and benefits of an intervention to the need to change patient values in order to achieve prevention goals and increase compliance, questions of good and bad in a given situation are inevitable. At the same time, the deontological imperative, that is, ethical codes and moral authorities, indicate what is right, but do not provide information on how to achieve the right. In each situation, decisions are made by the individual, and it is the individual’s competence to make optimal decisions that requires development. Ethical training of doctors, both in the university period and in continuous education, will allow achieving the best results in working with patients, while not wasting mental resources and not leading to professional burnout.