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31 - Wisdom in Medical Decision-Making

from Part VII - Wisdom in Action

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2019

By
Lauris C. Kaldjian
Edited by
Robert J. Sternberg  and
Judith Glück
Robert J. Sternberg
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Judith Glück
Affiliation:
Universität Klagenfurt, Austria
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Summary

Physicians need wisdom in medical decision-making because of the nature of illness and the questions that come with advances in biomedical science and the spread of therapeutic options. Interpretations of wisdom in the literature and practice of medicine reveal two principal accounts. One identifies wisdom as a constellation of virtues that are part of the character of the physician. The other identifies wisdom as a specific practical virtue manifested through deliberation about goals of care and other elements of medical decision-making. In medicine, wisdom is closely related to ethics because both are directed toward the good of a patient, which includes health, dignity, and freedom. This good is promoted through shared decision-making that requires respectful dialogue aimed at the patient’s best interests. Gaining wisdom requires training and practice in professional communities that include role models, shared narratives, and reflection on experience, especially when external forces challenge the expression of wisdom in the patient–physician relationship. Overall, wisdom reminds the physician that medicine is a moral practice that calls for an integrated understanding of science and ethics that allows physicians to treat patients as persons who have illnesses, rather than as bodies that have diseases.
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Wisdom , pp. 698 - 720
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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