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This chapter reviews the evidence of the development of ethical decision-making competencies of medical professionals. Selected studies are reviewed that use a theoretical framework that has shown the most promise for providing evidence of character formation. The evidence suggests that entering professionals lack full capacity for functional processes that give rise to morality (sensitivity, reasoning, motivation and commitment, character and competence). Further, following professional education, considerable variations in these abilities persist. Whereas many perceive that role modeling is the most effective way to teach professionalism, there is no empirical evidence to support the role of modeling in professional development. The chapter concludes with suggestions for facilitating character development resistant to influence by negative role models or adverse moral milieu.

Medical encounters are interactional/interpersonal processes taking place within contexts shaped by macro-level social structures. In the case of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), medical encounters occur at a stigmatized crossroads of social control and gendered norms of sexual behavior. When women are diagnosed and treated for chronic STDs, practitioner demeanor has an important impact on how patients will view not only their health status but also their moral status. This chapter draws on in depth interviews with 40 women diagnosed with genital infections of herpes and/or human papillomavirus (HPV – the cause of genital warts) to explore three models of patient–practitioner interaction. The analysis focuses on the relationship between gender, construction of illness, and practitioner interaction style. In a broader context, the health risks posed by particular interaction styles to female STD patients shed light on larger public health implications of combining morality with medicine for the broader range of patients with stigmatizing diagnoses.

This cooperative alliance between a university and a nonprofit, private organization was initiated with the goal of developing capacity building measures for improving medical health and welfare in the rural village of Ocoroni in Northern Sinaloa, Mexico. Drawing from the literature on organization development and action research, it provides a detailed overview of the design and implementation of the work which was involved in this collaborative partnership. The outcomes are presented and with accomplishments noted, indicating that the initiative had a positive impact for the local community in Ocoroni, while simultaneously providing research opportunities and cross-cultural learning for faculty, graduate students, healthcare practitioners, volunteers, residents from the village and others who were involved the project.

Each of the four objectives can be applied within the military training environment. Military training often requires that soldiers achieve specific levels of performance or proficiency in each phase of training. For example, training courses impose entrance and graduation criteria, and awards are given for excellence in military performance. Frequently, training devices, training media, and training evaluators or observers also directly support the need to diagnose performance strengths and weaknesses. Training measures may be used as indices of performance, and to indicate the need for additional or remedial training.

Drawing on ethnographic observations of diabetes (self-)management in French-speaking Switzerland and semi-structured interviews with healthcare practitioners, people living with diabetes and their relatives, the chapter aims at shedding light on self-tracking practices of people living with diabetes. It explores the ways people with diabetes measure and learn to recognise body symptoms of hypo- and hyperglycaemia through self-quantification, and act consequently. In particular, the chapter investigates recent medical devices – continuous and flash glucose monitoring systems – that reconfigure the work of health providers and self-care practices. It shows the self-monitoring practices and the resulting self-awareness people living with diabetes develop in interaction with technology and caregivers in order to undertake embodied actions. By pointing out that new technologies have facilitated the access to personal body information and the sharing of it, self-monitoring is also questioned as a form of surveillance, opening up issues of power and control over patients’ behaviours. With regard to this, the chapter illustrates that, occasionally, people with diabetes resist ‘docility’ through micro-powers at the level of everyday life by refusing to engage in their use and by developing personal strategies or ‘tactics’.

The purpose of this paper is to unpack the tenuous relationship between medical sociology and disability studies, particularly as it relates to the work of Irving Zola.

Many attribute the division between these disciplines to their starkly different and oft competing approaches to disability; however, I argue that a closer examination reveals a number of commonalities between the two.

I use Irving K. Zola’s extensive body of scholarship to demonstrate the connections between these divergent approaches to disability, and imagine what his legacy has to offer to the advancement of a diverse sociology of disability.

Neither focus is more correct than the other, as considering these bodies of work together presents a number of opportunities to advance a more comprehensive sociological theory – not just of disability – but of ableism and its intersections with other forms of oppression as well.

Fostering the development of professional character in student physicians remains the most essential, yet challenging and sometimes elusive goal of those in medical education. Current understandings and contemporary approaches to learning and teaching can provide perspectives that may inform our thinking. In this chapter, learning with and from others is explored along with approaches that form the foundation for the development of professional character that integrates moral conduct into professional practice. The implications for both teaching and learning and the importance of the learning environment are discussed. Education as a moral endeavor and values-based practice is emphasized.