Attitude of patients and doctors of government health care system to the basic principles of medical ethics

Abstract

Currently, researchers face with various situations related to the moral situation in healthcare. This article is based on the results of a sociological reasearch conducted by specialists of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Center for Health and Medical Prevention in 2015–2019.Given the relevance of this topic, researchers compare the opinions of modern doctors and patients to ethical principles. Purpose of the study. To study the attitude of modern doctors and patients of medical institutions to the classical norms of medical ethics. Materials and methods. For the selection of respondents was used the representative sample based on gender and age of respondents (for the selection of patients), and by specialty of a medical workers (for doctors). Information collected by survey. Descriptive statistics were used to interpret the results, statistically significant differences between the rates were determined by Fischer`s exact test. Results. The results indicate that there are statistically significant differences in the attitude of doctors and patients to some classic norms of medical ethics. In general, doctors often have an unambiguous opinion about the principles of bioethics; patients are more lenient about the principles of bioethics. However, sometimes patients are more categorical about some aspects of the principles of bioethics. In particular, these include the ambiguous opinions of doctors regarding the judgment that “if the doctor realizes that the patient has been harmed as a result of unlawful acts, he must report this to the internal affairs bodies”, as well as the opinions of doctors about the admissibility of accepting gifts from the patient. Conclusions. The classical principles of bioethics preserve functionality and form the necessary attitude of doctors and patients to the ethical foundations of the doctor’s professional activities. Nevertheless, some aspects of these relationships are partially dysfunctional and can become a source of negative behavior in the system of relations between a doctor and a patient.

Keywords

• sociological research
• opinions
• patient
• doctor
• medical ethics
• bioethics