Ethics in health care: 'Physician, heal thyself'

Doctors have an obligation, derived from duty to protect patients from harm, to take positive action if a colleague is impaired. In this article, the Health Professions Council of South Africa ethical guidelines concerning the duty of a doctor to report impaired practitioners is reviewed, followed b...

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Main Authors: D. Knapp van Bogaert, G.A. Ogunbanjo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: AOSIS 2014-01-01
Series:South African Family Practice
Subjects:
Online Access:https://safpj.co.za/index.php/safpj/article/view/4029
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author D. Knapp van Bogaert
G.A. Ogunbanjo
author_facet D. Knapp van Bogaert
G.A. Ogunbanjo
author_sort D. Knapp van Bogaert
collection DOAJ
description Doctors have an obligation, derived from duty to protect patients from harm, to take positive action if a colleague is impaired. In this article, the Health Professions Council of South Africa ethical guidelines concerning the duty of a doctor to report impaired practitioners is reviewed, followed by an overview of the regulations relating to the impairment of students and practitioners. Problems that doctors face, which may contribute to their impairment, will be discussed. Finally, while supporting the ethical duty to report impairment, a suggestion is made that during medication education, more emphasis should be placed on doctors recognising that they are human and fallible.
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institution Kabale University
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series South African Family Practice
spelling doaj-art-fef22ab03eb24378ab4e588a856bf0ab2025-08-20T03:47:10ZengAOSISSouth African Family Practice2078-61902078-62042014-01-0156110.4102/safp.v56i1.40293316Ethics in health care: 'Physician, heal thyself'D. Knapp van Bogaert0G.A. Ogunbanjo1Department of Family Medicine and Primary Health Care, University of LimpopoDepartment of Family Medicine and Primary Health Care, University of LimpopoDoctors have an obligation, derived from duty to protect patients from harm, to take positive action if a colleague is impaired. In this article, the Health Professions Council of South Africa ethical guidelines concerning the duty of a doctor to report impaired practitioners is reviewed, followed by an overview of the regulations relating to the impairment of students and practitioners. Problems that doctors face, which may contribute to their impairment, will be discussed. Finally, while supporting the ethical duty to report impairment, a suggestion is made that during medication education, more emphasis should be placed on doctors recognising that they are human and fallible.https://safpj.co.za/index.php/safpj/article/view/4029physicianhealimpairmentdoctors
spellingShingle D. Knapp van Bogaert
G.A. Ogunbanjo
Ethics in health care: 'Physician, heal thyself'
South African Family Practice
physician
heal
impairment
doctors
title Ethics in health care: 'Physician, heal thyself'
title_full Ethics in health care: 'Physician, heal thyself'
title_fullStr Ethics in health care: 'Physician, heal thyself'
title_full_unstemmed Ethics in health care: 'Physician, heal thyself'
title_short Ethics in health care: 'Physician, heal thyself'
title_sort ethics in health care physician heal thyself
topic physician
heal
impairment
doctors
url https://safpj.co.za/index.php/safpj/article/view/4029
work_keys_str_mv AT dknappvanbogaert ethicsinhealthcarephysicianhealthyself
AT gaogunbanjo ethicsinhealthcarephysicianhealthyself