Enhancing Reflection: An Interpersonal Exercise in Ethics Education‪.‬

If there ever was a Golden Age in which the kindly village doctor knew best and his grateful patients unquestioningly accepted his decisions, it may safely be said that we are no longer in it. Today's health care professionals provide care in highly organized and complex surroundings, where they encounter not only patients, but other professionals whose values do not necessarily accord with their own. These changes in the way the health care system functions have consequences for those who are working in it. To adapt to the new environment, a good professional must not only exhibit the technical proficiency that allows her to do things right-she must also do the right thing. She needs to be aware of her own professional norms and values; to be able to express them to her colleagues, her patients, and their families; and to work together with these other actors to provide ethically responsible care. In short, if professionals are to do the right thing, they must develop a refined capacity for moral reflection. We have developed a tool for practical ethics instruction aimed at helping professionals to do just that. The tool has been designed to be flexible enough to be used not only in medicine, but also in a number of other venues, including business, architecture, journalism, and the like. While resources featuring the idea of reflection have proved popular in professional ethics education, (1) ours differs from them in that it is based on an expressive and collaborative conception of morality in which responsibilities are negotiated through narrative.