Professionalism: COVID-19 made me do it!

Curr Opin Anaesthesiol. 2022 Apr 1;35(2):195-200. doi: 10.1097/ACO.0000000000001107.

Abstract

Purpose of review: COVID-19 pandemic has created profound ethical challenges, not only for clinical decision-making but also for defining physician professional conduct.

Recent findings: Multiple ethical questions arose as the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged globally, including physician obligations in a pandemic, allotment of personal protective equipment, care of unvaccinated patients, discern between evidence-based and unreliable information, addressing end-of-life wishes, implications of involving medical students in a public health crisis, and finally physician burnout aggravated by a pandemic.

Summary: There is a need to redefine existing medical professionalism standards so that future healthcare professionals are well prepared to deal with similar public health crisis.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Burnout, Professional* / etiology
  • Burnout, Professional* / prevention & control
  • COVID-19*
  • Humans
  • Pandemics / prevention & control
  • Professionalism
  • SARS-CoV-2