Chapter 7: Mindful Practice and the Tacit Ethics of the Moment

Abstract

One way of defining the character of clinicians is to examine their moment-to-moment actions during the course of clinical care. These small actions, cumulatively, describe the clinician as a practitioner and moral agent. In this chapter, using clinical examples, I explore the possibility that professional competence and virtue are based, in part, on clinicians’ ability to engage in a “mindful” practice in which they can be attentive to their own actions, curious enough to examine them and present and flexible enough to change them.

Citation

Epstein, R.M. (2006), "Chapter 7: Mindful Practice and the Tacit Ethics of the Moment", Kenny, N. and Shelton, W. (Ed.) Lost Virtue (Advances in Bioethics, Vol. 10), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 115-144. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1479-3709(06)10007-2