Today's medical self and the other: Challenges and evolving solutions for enhanced humanization and quality of care

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 12; no. 7; p. e0181514
• Main Authors: Sueiras, Perla, Romano-Betech, Victoria, Vergil-Salgado, Alejandro, de Hoyos, Adalberto, Quintana-Vargas, Silvia, Ruddick, William, Castro-Santana, Anaclara, Islas-Andrade, Sergio, Altamirano-Bustamante, Nelly F, Altamirano-Bustamante, Myriam M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science 31.07.2017
• Subjects: Educational aspects; Evidence-based medicine; Medical practice
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0181514

Recent scientific developments, along with growing awareness of cultural and social diversity, have led to a continuously growing range of available treatment options; however, such developments occasionally lead to an undesirable imbalance between science, technology and humanism in clinical practice. This study explores the understanding and practice of values and value clusters in real-life clinical settings, as well as their role in the humanization of medicine and its institutions. The research focuses on the values of clinical practice as a means of finding ways to enhance the pairing of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) with Values-based Medicine (VBM) in daily practice. The views and representations of clinical practice in 15 pre-CME and 15 post-CME interviews were obtained from a random sampling of active healthcare professionals. These views were then identified and qualitatively analyzed using a three-step hermeneutical approach. By showing the intricate clusters and networks into which values are interwoven, our analysis suggests methods for fine-tuning educational interventions so they can lead to demonstrable changes in attitudes and practices.