Ethical Issues In The Mayo Clinic: Article Analysis

The question of what is considered ethical in the medical field is highly debatable. “Reprogramming the Ethics of Med Students” is an article written by Lane Wallace discussing a study performed by the Mayo Clinic. Although this article is successful at bringing awareness to the issue of ethics by providing the reader with a surplus of data, the credentials and reliability of the author could be questioned. The article begins with a description of the study performed by the Mayo Clinic. “The Mayo Clinic released the results of a study on the relationship between burnout and ethics among students at seven medical schools across the country” (page 1). The Mayo Clinic is a highly reputable institution however, it is never stated what seven

Klasko blames the doctors for teaching medical students poor ethics. The author then provides the reader with statement made by Klasko, “Klasko gives the example of a Georgetown University study in which medical students were asked to give a sleeping woman in a hospital bed a pelvic exam, with the attending physician telling them it was okay, even though the patient was asleep and hadn't given her consent. Ninety-five percent of the first-year students wouldn't do the exam, even though they were told it needed to be done. Only thirty-three percent of the fourth-year students refused to do the exam” (page 2). The author made an excellent choice by implementing this statement into the article. The statement provides the reader with a simple to understand example that provides statistics on the drastic decline in ethics between first-year students and fourth-year students. The example also allows the reader to understand some of the stress medical students feel due to the paradox between what is taught in the classroom and what is taught during the job by doctors. This stress could be partially relieved by retraining “old school” doctors on the proper ethics needed in the medical field or placing stricter enforcement on following

The first reason being that she is a pilot without a medical background. This could prevent Wallace from having a complete understanding of the Mayo Clinic study and create bias in the article. Another reason her reliability could be put into question is the fact that she is an adventure writer and author of “Surviving Uncertainty: Taking a Hero’s Journey.” Wallace’s knowledge of adventure writing may influence her to embellish her writing and alter information to create a more interesting