For Health Care Professionals – and Why They Matter
By Davis Tornabene, FBN Advisory Board Member, Sarasota
The Oath of Hippocrates, written during the fifth century BCE, incorporated universal virtues and values to support the moral development of physicians and to affirm their steadfast commitment to the welfare of patients. These ideals were integrated into a scaffolding of both art and science that continues to guide the practice of medicine today. The original pledge has been revised and ultimately replaced with a living code of medical ethics that strives to adapt the same ideals to the contemporary health care practice environment.
With the advent of new health care disciplines came the need to establish individual ethical codes for their distinctive area of practice. For the most part, these codes share many of the same core values and ideals, but they also articulate nuances in their obligations and responsibilities that reflect a more focused scope of practice.
This collection of codes has been created to broaden our understanding of the similarities and unique differences that exist among the ethical obligations and responsibilities of health care professionals. In everyday practice, these additional insights could improve bedside collaboration and cooperation among interdisciplinary treatment teams caring for patients with complex multisystem illnesses. For a more expansive view, ethical codes could become part of a unifying platform to ensure that the values and ideals that have guided our mission are integrated into the next era of innovation which will include partnerships with experts in computer science, engineering and artificial intelligence.
