Knowledge of Ethical Issues among Doctors in Private Practice

Ethics and medicine have been together from ancient times since the introduction of the Hippocratic Oath. The recent increase in lawsuits against doctors is an issue of immediate concern. With this background, this study was done to assess the knowledge of medical graduates doing private practice who are future of the society to practise the art of cure.

A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was conducted which included 30 newly graduated doctors involved in private practice. After obtaining the informed consent, questionnaire was sent by post and mail to the volunteer doctors. A questionnaire containing the common ethical scenarios was administered. The respondents will be asked to answer in ‘YES’ or ‘NO’ or ‘NO IDEA’ regarding all options given against the different ethical scenarios. The data were entered in Microsoft Excel. The results were reported in frequencies and percentages.

The mean age group of the 30 participants was 24.8 ± 1.4 years. There was equal gender representation (Males - 15; Females - 15). All the participants were MBBS graduated and were doing private practice after their degree completion. All the 30 participants had an experience of less than a year in private practice. About 80% of the respondents knew the importance of informed consent, and nearly 90% of them were aware that issuing false medical certificate was unethical. Moreover, 90% were of the view that religious and cultural beliefs were not to be given importance when dealing with life-saving procedures. Nearly 50% were of the opinion that consent of husband is not necessary to perform an abortion, and 50% said that age should be given importance in deciding the priority in providing life-saving treatment.

It was concluded that medical professionals are unaware of ethical issues and ways to deal with them. The small sample size was the major drawback of this study. Further, the inclusion of senior physicians and their responses would have given a better view of the ethical knowledge prevailing among the different practising physicians.