Virtues, vices, & habits of a health care provider

OBJECTIVE: Identify virtues of a health care provider in the context of the goals of medicine

Goals of Medicine
1. Promote health, prevent disease
2. Alleviate pain and suffering
3. Cure diseases
4. Improve/maintain function
5. Prevent untimely death
6. Education of the patient and family
7. Do not harm

1. Virtues – (Latin: virtus, Greek: "arete") moral excellence. A virtue is a trait or quality subjectively
deemed to be morally excellent and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral
being. Personal virtues are characteristics valued as promoting individual and collective wellbeing.
The opposite of virtue is vice.
2. Vices - a practice or a behavior or habit considered immoral, depraved, and/or degrading in the
associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a defect, an infirmity, or merely
a bad habit. Synonyms for vice include fault, depravity, sin, iniquity, wickedness, and corruption.
The modern English term that best captures its original meaning is the word vicious, which means
"full of vice". In this sense, the word vice comes from the Latin word vitium, meaning "failing or
defect". Vice is the opposite of virtue
3. Habits – is defined as a facility and readiness of acting in a certain manner acquired by repeated
acts.
a. Types of good habits
b. Types of bad habits

VIRTUES OF THE HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL

Acquired habits or dispositions to do what is a morally right trait of character

HEALTHCARE
Patient Advocate
- Keep patient’s best interest first in mind
- Intend one’s good (benevolence)
- Avoid conflict of interest

RESEARCH
Research participant and public advocate
Respect dignity of man
- seek good
- avoid harm
- informed consent
Provide truth to the Public

Virtues of the health care provider

 Fidelity - Faithfulness to trust and promise
 Honesty - Truthfulness and integrity
3 stages Coruage to extend your craft, Courage to stand up for whatis riht Courage to do
difficult thing
TRUTHFULNESS
Good faith intent to convey the truth, both in words and conduct, to others, as best one
knows it
-Truth telling
 -diagnosis, prognosis,
benefits, burdens, etc
Research
- publishing accurate findings
- acknowledge contributors
- cite source of support

 Integrity – a strong moral character when one uphold the true essence of their profession,
saving live first among other reason.
- being true to one self or wholeness
- congruence between belief’s, words and actions
- making choices in line with one’s values. As an ethical concept, integrity depends
upon consistency. To have integrity, a person must have his/her actions upon a
well-thought out framework of moral principles. What he/she should be the same
as what he/she says. Practice what you say/preach.
- A concept of consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles,
expectations and outcomes. Integrity is regarded as the quality of having an
intuitive sense of honesty and truthfulness in regard to the motivations for one’s
actions.
- Integrity can be regarded as the opposite of hypocrisy in that it regards internal
consistency as a virtue, and suggests that parties holding apparently conflicting
values should account for the discrepancy or alter their beliefs.
 Humility – humbleness is a quality of being courteously respectful of others. It is opposite
of aggressiveness, arrogance, boastfulness, and vanity. Rather than, “Me first”, humility
allows us to say, “No, you first, my friend.”
- The quality that lets us go more than halfway to meet the needs and demands of
others.
- A demeanor of humility is exactly what is needed to live in peace and harmony
with all persons. Humility dissipates anger and wounds.
- Humility allows us to see the dignity and worth of all God’s people.
- Humility distinguishes the wise leader from the arrogant power-seeker.
- Recognizing one’s capabilities and limitations
- Accepting deserved praise and denying undeserved praise

 Respect – denotes both a positive feeling of esteem for a person or other entity such as
nation or religion.
- Specific feeling of regards of the actual qualities of the one respected.
- Action that honor somebody is a sign of respect

 Compassion – co-suffering
- One in which emotional capacities of empathy and sympathy
- Feeling are commonly gives rise to an active desire to alleviate another suffering
- Self-sacrifice, given voluntarily for the benefit of another

Compassionate competent care is the essence of the healing profession

a. Listening to patient’s anxiety
b. Telling bad news kindly
c. Reducing burdens for research subjects

 Prudence – is the characteristic of exercising sound judgment in practical affairs. In this

case, the virtue is the ability to judge between virtuous and vicious actions, not only in a
general sense, but with regard to appropriate actions at a given time and place.
- Habitual deliberateness, caution and circumspection in action
- Foresight

 Courage – Doing what is right without undue fear

- Resoluteness, heroism
- also known as bravery, fortitude, will and intrepidity, is the ability to confront
fear, pain, risk/danger, uncertainty, or intimidation.
  Justice - Constant will to give another his duty

Nursing is a field that demands much of those who pursue it. Long hours and the strain of working
with ill and stressed people on a daily basis can make it a very difficult challenge. If you are currently
in the nursing field or are considering pursuing this career, here is a list of the top 10 traits every nurse
should have/be:
1. A Caring Nature: If a person cannot care about the people they are serving, they will not excel
as a nurse. Nurses deal with the sick and injured and their families on a daily basis, and they need to
be able to show them that they truly care about their situation. caring-nurse
2. Be Empathetic: Nurses regularly deal with people who are scared and in pain. They must be
able to put themselves in their patients’ shoes if they are going to give them the quality of care that a
good nurse provides.
3. Be Detail-Oriented: Nurses must remember to write everything they do on patients’ charts.
They must also remember to bring medications at the correct times. Being an organized detail-oriented
person is therefore crucial for someone in this career field.
4. Be Emotionally Stable: Nurses feel the joy of seeing a new baby born, followed by the pain of
losing a long-term patient who had become a friend. Emotional stability is crucial in order to survive
the roller coaster ride of emotions nurses must endure on a daily basis. Tired nurse
5. Be Adaptable: No day is quite like the next when you work as a nurse, so they need to be able
to adapt to circumstances. People are unpredictable at the best of times, but under stress become even
more unpredictable, so a nurse’s typical workday will require flexibility and adaptability.
6. Have Physical Endurance: Breaks for nurses are few and far between. They are on their feet all
day, sometimes for 12 or more hours at a time, so nurses must have good physical endurance to succeed
in nursing.
7. Be a Quick Thinker: When a nurse notices something is not right with a patient, they need to
be able to make decisions quickly and put their plans into action instantly. Nursing is not the career
for someone who needs time to think about a situation before responding, because even a fraction of a
second can mean the difference between life and death.
8. Have Great Judgment: A nurse must be able to look at a patient’s current state and accurately
assess what is or is not needed. This must happen quickly during emergencies. Nurses therefore need
sound judgment and maturity.
9. Be Hard-Working: Nursing is a never ending job. Someone is always ill and in need of some
sort of aid or attention. It’s also unusual for a hospital or medical centre to be overstaffed, which of
course means more workload on each nurse in the unit. Being a hard worker is therefore a very
important trait.
10. Have Great Communication Skills: Nurses communicate with each other, doctors, patients, and
patients’ families on a daily basis, so being able to communicate clearly and effectively, and to read
people is necessary for people in this career.

Vices of the health care

 FRAUD - In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to
damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition
varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation. Defrauding
people or entities of money or valuables is a common purpose of fraud, but there have also
been fraudulent "discoveries", e.g. in science, to gain prestige rather than immediate
monetary gain. A hoax also involves deception, but without the intention of gain or of
damaging or depriving the victim.

Common law fraud has nine elements:

a representation of an existing fact;
its materiality;
its falsity;
the speaker's knowledge of its falsity;
the speaker's intent that it shall be acted upon by the plaintiff;
plaintiff's ignorance of its falsity;
plaintiff's reliance on the truth of the representation;
plaintiff's right to rely upon it; and
consequent damages suffered by plaintiff.
 The measure of damages in fraud cases is to be computed by the "benefit of bargain" rule,
which is the difference between the value of the property had it been as represented, and its
actual value. Special damages may be allowed if shown proximately caused by defendant's
fraud and the damage amounts are proved with specificity.
 PRIDE
Inordinate self-esteem, conceit
Superiority over others
 GREED
Inordinate acquisitiveness