Current Trends in Teaching Ethics of Healthcare Practices

The article discusses how changes in how healthcare is delivered have made the classical Hippocratic ethical principles inadequate. Ethical principles that once governed the doctor-patient relationship must now cover a more complex system that includes the patient, the health care team, and the community. There is growing evidence that physicians professional and moral development is not only determined by the formal curriculum of ethics; rather more, it is determined by the moral environment of the professional practice, the 'hidden curriculum' which deserves serious consideration by medical education.