TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Faculty must adhere to a professional code of
conduct that specifies his or her commitment to:
-
Provide fair and objective treatment to all
people.
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Operate in accordance with the laws and
regulations in the country that he or she is working
in.
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Conduct themselves in a manner that promotes the
spirit of self-determination, non-dependency, and
human dignity.
-
Respect supervisor/faculty as the institutions
representative and abide by their recommendations
and actions.
-
Follow the Canadian Medical Association Code of
Ethics
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Not engage in tasks or activities that one would
otherwise not be allowed to perform in Canada.
CANADIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION CODE OF ETHICS (Update 2004)
Preface
This Code has been prepared by the Canadian
Medical Association as an ethical guide for Canadian
physicians, including residents, and medical students.
Its focus is the core activities of medicine –such as
health promotion, advocacy, disease prevention,
diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, palliation,
education and research. It is based on the fundamental
principles and values of medical ethics, especially
compassion, beneficence, non-maleficence, respect for
persons, justice and accountability. The Code,
together with CMA policies on specific topics,
constitutes a compilation of guidelines that can
provide a common ethical framework for Canadian
physicians. Physicians should be aware of the legal
and regulatory requirements that govern medical
practice in their jurisdictions.
Physicians may experience tension between different
ethical principles, between ethical and legal or
regulatory requirements, or between their own ethical
convictions and the demands of other parties. Training
in ethical analysis and decision-making during
undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing medical
education is recommended for physicians to develop
their knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to deal
with these conflicts. Consultation with colleagues,
regulatory authorities, ethicists, ethics committees
or others who have relevant expertise is also
recommended.
Fundamental Responsibilities
1. Consider first the well-being of the patient.
2. Treat all patients with respect; do not exploit
them for personal advantage.
3. Provide for appropriate care for your patient,
including physical comfort and spiritual and
psychosocial support even when cure is no longer
possible.
4. Practise the art and science of medicine
competently and without impairment.
5. Engage in lifelong learning to maintain and improve
your professional knowledge, skills and attitudes.
6. Recognize your limitations and the competence of
others and when indicated, recommend that additional
opinions and services be sought.
7. Resist any influence or interference that could
undermine your professional integrity.
8. Contribute to the development of the medical
profession, whether through clinical practice,
research, teaching, administration or advocating on
behalf of the profession or the public.
9. Refuse to participate in or support practices that
violate basic human rights.
10. Promote and maintain your own health and
wellbeing.
Responsibilities to the Patient
11. Recognize and disclose conflicts of interest
that arise in the course of your professional duties
and activities, and resolve them in the best interest
of patients.
12. Inform your patient when your personal values
would influence the recommendation or practice of any
medical procedure that the patient needs or wants.
13. Do not exploit patients for personal advantage.
14. Take all reasonable steps to prevent harm to
patients; should harm occur, disclose it to the
patient.
15. Recognize your limitations and, when indicated,
recommend or seek additional opinions and services.
16. In determining professional fees to patients for
non-insured services, consider both the nature of the
service provided and the ability of the patient to
pay, and be prepared to discuss the fee with the
patient.
General Responsibilities
Initiating and Dissolving a Patient-Physician
Relationship
17. In providing medical service, do not
discriminate against any patient on such grounds as
age, gender, marital status, medical condition,
national or ethnic origin, physical or mental
disability, political affiliation, race, religion,
sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status. This does
not abrogate the physician’s right to refuse to accept
a patient for legitimate reasons.
18. Provide whatever appropriate assistance you can to
any person with an urgent need for medical care.
19. Having accepted professional responsibility for a
patient, continue to provide services until they are
no longer required or wanted; until another suitable
physician has assumed responsibility for the patient;
or until the patient has been given reasonable notice
that you intend to terminate the relationship.
20. Limit treatment of yourself or members of your
immediate family to minor or emergency services and
only when another physician is not readily available;
there should be no fee for such treatment.
Communication, Decision Making and Consent
21. Provide your patients with the information
they need to make informed decisions about their
medical care, and answer their questions to the best
of your ability.
22. Make every reasonable effort to communicate with
your patients in such a way that information exchanged
is understood.
23. Recommend only those diagnostic and therapeutic
services that you consider to be beneficial to your
patient or to others. If a service is recommended for
the benefit of others, as for example in matters of
public health, inform your patient of this fact and
proceed only with explicit informed consent or where
required by law.
24. Respect the right of a competent patient to accept
or reject any medical care recommended.
25. Recognize the need to balance the developing
competency of minors and the role of families in
medical decision-making. Respect the autonomy of those
minors who are authorized to consent to treatment.
26. Respect your patient's reasonable request for a
second opinion from a physician of the patient's
choice.
27. Ascertain wherever possible and recognize your
patient's wishes about the initiation, continuation or
cessation of life-sustaining treatment.
28. Respect the intentions of an incompetent patient
as they were expressed (e.g., through a valid advance
directive or proxy designation) before the patient
became incompetent.
29. When the intentions of an incompetent patient are
unknown and when no formal mechanism for making
treatment decisions is in place, render such treatment
as you believe to be in accordance with the patient's
values or, if these are unknown, the patient's best
interests.
30. Be considerate of the patient's family and
significant others and cooperate with them in the
patient's interest.
Privacy and Confidentiality
31. Protect the personal health information of
your patients.
32. Provide information reasonable in the
circumstances to patients about the reasons for the
collection, use and disclosure of their personal
health information.
33. Be aware of your patient’s rights with respect to
the collection, use, disclosure and access to their
personal health information; ensure that such
information is recorded accurately.
34. Avoid public discussions or comments about
patients that could reasonably be seen as revealing
confidential or identifying information.
35. Disclose your patients' personal health
information to third parties only with their consent,
or as provided for by law, such as when the
maintenance of confidentiality would result in a
significant risk of substantial harm to others or, in
the case of incompetent patients, to the patients
themselves. In such cases take all reasonable steps to
inform the patients that the usual requirements for
confidentiality will be breached.
36. When acting on behalf of a third party, take
reasonable steps to ensure that the patient
understands the nature and extent of your
responsibility to the third party.
37. Upon a patient’s request, provide the patient or a
third party with a copy of his or her medical record,
unless there is a compelling reason to believe that
information contained in the record will result in
substantial harm to the patient or others.
Research
38. Ensure that any research in which you
participate is evaluated both scientifically and
ethically and is approved by a research ethics board
that meets current standards of practice.
39. Inform the potential research subject, or proxy,
about the purpose of the study, its source of funding,
the nature and relative probability of harms and
benefits, and the nature of your participation
including any compensation.
40. Before proceeding with the study, obtain the
informed consent of the subject, or proxy, and advise
prospective subjects that they have the right to
decline or withdraw from the study at any time,
without prejudice to their ongoing care.
Responsibilities to Society
41. Recognize that community, society and the
environment are important factors in the health of
individual patients.
42. Recognize the profession's responsibility to
society in matters relating to public health, health
education, environmental protection, legislation
affecting the health or well-being of the community
and the need for testimony at judicial proceedings.
43. Recognize the responsibility of physicians to
promote equitable access to health care resources.
44. Use health care resources prudently.
45. Recognize a responsibility to give generally held
opinions of the profession when interpreting
scientific knowledge to the public; when presenting an
opinion that is contrary to the generally held opinion
of the profession, so indicate.
Responsibilities to the Profession
46. Recognize that the self-regulation of the
profession is a privilege and that each physician has
a continuing responsibility to merit this privilege
and to support its institutions.
47. Be willing to teach and learn from medical
students, residents, other colleagues and other health
professionals.
48. Avoid impugning the reputation of colleagues for
personal motives; however, report to the appropriate
authority any unprofessional conduct by colleagues.
49. Be willing to participate in peer review of other
physicians and to undergo review by your peers. Enter
into associations, contracts and agreements only if
you can maintain your professional integrity and
safeguard the interests of your patients.
50. Avoid promoting, as a member of the medical
profession, any service (except your own) or product
for personal gain.
51. Do not keep secret from colleagues the diagnostic
or therapeutic agents and procedures that you employ.
52. Collaborate with other physicians and health
professionals in the care of patients and the
functioning and improvement of health services. Treat
your colleagues with dignity and as persons worthy of
respect.
Responsibilities to Oneself
53. Seek help from colleagues and appropriately
qualified professionals for personal problems that
might adversely affect your service to patients,
society or the profession.
54. Protect and enhance your own health and wellbeing
by identifying those stress factors in your
professional and personal lives that can be managed by
developing and practising appropriate coping
strategies.
