Clinical ethics as a field was founded to helping clinicians at the day to day level at the bedside, wrestle with their ethical decisions in relating to the doctor patient relationship. A key concept in the virtue ethics framework is phronesis (Greek) or Practical Wisdom. Some have simply described Practical Wisdom (Greek: phronesis) as the “uber-virtue” in life—the goal-directed, integrative skill or disposition that helps one discern the “right way to do the right thing” (Barry Schwartz). Dr. Lauris Kaldjian has described practical wisdom in medicine to be analogous to that deliberative ability to make good clinical judgments at the bedside. Clinicians-in-training need practical wisdom because, as Kaldjian notes, medicine is a “moral practice of care that aims at health and healing and treats patients as persons,” and clinicians in training often find themselves learning to make wise, context-sensitive decisions in complex situations that are rife with uncertainty, challenged by competing perspectives, and constrained by various social forces in healthcare. This presentation aims to offer a clinician-friendly framework for analyzing and addressing challenging ethical or professional decisions in the care of the patient.
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