Trust: an Ethical Dimension of Healthcare in Chronic Disorders

FORMAT | ARTICLE

PAGES | 190-205

LANGUAGE | English

ISSN| 1583-5170

HOW TO CITE| SANDU, Antonio, Cojocaru, D., Gavrilovici, C., & Oprea. L. (2013). Trust: an Ethical Dimension of Healthcare in Chronic Disorders. Revista Română de Bioetică, 11(1), 190-205. WOS:000318040500009. IF: 1.170.

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ABSTRACT:

From a constructionist perspective, the doctor-patient relationship is a social construct, the result of a negotiation of interpretations concerning the meaning assigned by all the participants in the interpretative process of the doctor-patient relationship. Trust is one of the main elements of this relationship, as it is attributed and allows the transformation of an individual subjective fact into an interpersonal relationship. This article presents the main dimensions of trust as they were identified in the discourse of interviewed physicians: interpersonal trust, present in the doctor-patient relationship, institutional trust, public trust in the medical system and in the healthcare services delivered to chronic (diabetic) patients.
In order to do this, four focus-groups included diabetes specialists and general practitioners (GP/ family doctors / primary care providers) involved in the care of diabetes sufferers; the topic was the patients’ individual autonomy and responsibility for their own health status. From their discourse we have isolated and analysed the topic of trust, identified by the physicians as a central ethical dimension of the therapeutic effort.

KEYWORDS:

Trust, doctor-patient relationship, therapeutic alliance, autonomy, responsibility