The clinical dietitian as an educator of medical students

The study of nutrition as it relates to patient evaluation and care is a necessary component of the education of medical students. Although the clinical dietitian is the person best qualified to provide applied nutrition education, this contribution has been made only since the integration of the dietitian into the health care team. Full utilization of the knowledge and expertise of the dietitian in the education of the medical student has yet to occur.     

The business of ethics. Hospitals need to focus on managerial ethics as much as clinical ethics

Business ethics begins with the recognition of the various values and "goods" involved in judgements of what to do. Four key values are individual rights, individual self-interest, the company's best interest, and the public good. Often a company has to choose which of these goals or values should be subordinated to another. Business ethics, then, must clarify priorities among these values and establish priority principles to resolve conflicts. One approach to contemporary business ethics emphasizes personal integrity, focusing on conflicts of interest; another approach stresses social responsibility, focusing on the effect of company policy on groups and individuals in society. In business, most of the attention to conflicts of interest focuses on the conflict between employee self-interest and the firm's interest. Healthcare organizations may need to focus on potential conflicts between the patient's interest and the institution's or physician's interest. Physician referrals and pharmaceutical companies' marketing practices are two areas with potential conflicts. Not-for-profit organizations have been quicker than the business world to acknowledge social responsibility. In many ways, however, the social impact of healthcare policies and decisions has not been as carefully considered as it should be. Institutionalizing deliberation about clinical ethical issues has helped to raise awareness about the ethical dimensions of medical care. It would also be useful to institutionalize attention to business ethics in healthcare.     

The clinical dietitian as an educator of medical students.

The study of nutrition as it relates to patient evaluation and care is a necessary component of the education of medical students. Although the clinical dietitian is the person best qualified to provide applied nutrition education, this contribution has been made only since the integration of the dietitian into the health care team. Full utilization of the knowledge and expertise of the dietitian in the education of the medical student has yet to occur.     

Opening farm gates: community as educator

This paper presents the experience of five undergraduate Bachelor of Nursing students who undertook a clinical practice placement in a rural community. This, our first engagement with nursing, was a profound learning experience. We did not expect the intense contributions the rural community as a whole would make to our understandings of rural health care in general, and rural nursing in particular. Initially, we felt like outsiders to the rural community as well as the profession of nursing. The interwoven nature of community relationships combined with our acute sense of being highly visible in the township led to us developing a sense of vulnerability. We believed we needed to portray a professional image during all social interactions with the community and this compounded our insecurities during the clinical placement. Before long, we found the rural population embracing and very supportive of our placement. However, we found ourselves questioning whether we would return to a rural community to work as nurses on the basis of our lack of privacy during this time.     

The customer's rights as an ethics matter

Despite the technological progress in the health field, the symmetrical relationships between customers, health professionals and institutions has not achieved an acceptable level. This research presents a theoretical discussion on ethics and customer rights matters in the daily nursing service. It approaches the asymmetry of the relationship between health professionals and customers; the exchange of knowledge as a possibility of reducing this asymmetry; the users the of health service as consumers; bioethic and its principles; the questioning of daily practice as essential to ethics. It emphasizes the importance of reflection on the part of nurses in relation to ethic problems, in order to commit these professionals with the social transformations.