Ethics in healthcare
SIR ERROL WALROND DELIVERS A CRITICAL RESOURCE FOR HEALTHCARE PRACTITIONERS AND STUDENTS IN NEW BOOK
By Marlon Madden
University of the West Indies (UWI) officials are upbeat about a new publication that they believe will help to enhance the teaching of ethics in healthcare. On Tuesday evening, former Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the Cave Hill Campus Professor Emeritus Sir Errol “Mickey” Walrond officially launched his new book – A Question of Ethics – Case Conferences in Everyday Ethical and Legal Issues.
The retired surgeon recalled that during his time as a medical student more than six decades ago, ethics was not taught as part of the curriculum.
“It was left to the teachers to tell us how to behave and sometimes we never got anything about how to behave except follow them, and that was not always a good thing to do,” he said.
Sir Errol said during his tenure as professor, from 1976 to 1992 and again from 1996 to 2001, he received a number of informal complaints that young doctors were not behaving as ethically as the older doctor”.
He recalled that while this was not necessarily the case, he felt it was still necessary to introduce “a more organised approach to ethical teaching and conduct”.
Since then, he said, ethics teaching has been a lot more extensive in the medical profession here.
In 2005, Sir Errol published his first book – Ethical Practice in Everyday Healthcare – to help enhance the teaching of ethics in the medical profession.
He said his latest book, which was completed before the COVID-19 pandemic, seeks to highlight some issues to be avoided and some problems that could be resolved in the management of everyday cases.
Dr Peter Adams, Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences UWI, Cave Hill Campus, stressed the importance of ethics in the training of medical practitioners, saying the new book should be added to the curriculum.
“Ethical training for medical practitioners is important as it allows them to make sound decisions while keeping within the legal framework. The new book by Sir Errol is therefore timely and extremely relevant,” said Adams.
He said a plan was currently being put in place “to ensure that all campuses have a dedicated ethics clerkship of two weeks duration”.
“While this is good, we are going one step further. As far as the final MBBS exams are concerned, the campuses are currently seeking approval for an integrated final MBBS exam where medicine and therapeutics, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology will be tested as a single entity,” said Adams. The final exam will include ethics, he added.
Meanwhile, Professor Sir Henry Fraser, a former Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, said issues surrounding ethics have been a “neglected” aspect of the medical career and a neglected aspect of medicine and medical teaching in the Caribbean for a long time.
Sir Henry described the new book as “superb” and practical, saying it had a vast number of cases and that is of tremendous value for all doctors and the entire healthcare profession.
The 339-page publication has 14 chapters, covering a range of themes including consent, confidentiality, counselling and alternatives in medicine.
It also examines issues relating to resuscitation, professional conduct and allocation of resources, child abuse, restraint of patients, culture and religion.
Reviewers of the text agreed that it should be read by all healthcare professionals and become a reference text for medical students and administrators.
Professor Clive Landis, Principal of the UWI, Cave Hill Campus, said it was “quite appropriate given the world’s current volatile state which requires quick and agile responses in policies, procedures, regulations, programmes and activities, while maintaining a standard of ethics to ensure fairness to all”.
“Using his vast medical expertise and visionary perspective, Professor Walrond has compiled key case studies to crystallise the major ethical and legal issues of the day facing medical practitioners and to bring these to wider exposure and analysis,” said Landis.
He described the publication as “simply presented and easy to read”, saying it will prove to be an invaluable resource for healthcare practitioners and students.
Vice-Chancellor of the UWI Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, described the publication as being relevant. He said it was critical since it contains the text of thousands of experiences and reflections of the author.
“It contains the strategies and the thought of a committed scholar who wishes to promote the advancement and the best practices of his profession,” said Sir Hilary.
marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb
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