Describing occupational medicine practice to establish a basis for ethical guidance

摘要

Ethical guidance to doctors usually assumes a normal doctor-patient relationship. However, in occupational medicine, such a relationship may not always exist. Occupational physicians in the UK appear to be polarized in their views as to what that relationship exactly is. On the one hand, there are those who view the advice they give to workers as being akin to a therapeutic intervention; on the other, there are those who see their interactions with workers as being more remote, objective and impartial. An alternative approach suggests that both sets of circumstances exist, and indeed there may be a 'middle ground' between these two extreme positions.