Being ‘one cog in a bigger machine’: A qualitative study investigating ethical challenges perceived by junior doctors

Abstract

There is increasing recognition among bioethicists that health-care practitioners' everyday ethical challenges ought to be the focus of ethical analysis. Interviews were conducted with Australian junior doctors to identify some of the kinds of situations that they found ethically challenging, as a basis for this type of grounded philosophical analysis and for further empirical research into junior doctors' ethical issues. Fourteen doctors in their first to fourth year of work from six hospitals in Melbourne participated. Issues discussed included involvement in treatment perceived as inappropriate, seniors discouraging disclosure of errors, coping when requested help was not forthcoming, obs..