Monday, February 21, 2011
Doctors, Teachers, and Professional Ethics
So, after the midterm exam, we will be discussing your final project soon. As a way of introduction, take a look at this clip. As you may know, there is a massive teacher union protest in Madison, Wisconsin. Teachers called in sick, closing all public schools in Madison for three consecutive days, to protest at the state capital about the Governor's effort to eliminate public sector unions. If teachers who do not provide a medical certificate they lose a day's pay for protesting instead of going to work.
The University of Wisconsin medical school reports that it is investigating reports that doctors from the school handed out medical excuse notes to protesters at the state Capitol this weekend.
As you can watch in the clip, doctors from numerous hospitals set up a station near the Capitol on Saturday to provide notes to explain public employees' absences from work.
The University of Wisconsin Health said Sunday that any doctors who distributed notes did so on their own behalf. Now, the questions are whether it is morally permissible for a doctor to pass out sick notes to protesting teachers who were not sick so that they would not lose a day's pay for protesting and whether a teacher is justified in submitting such a note to the school. Assuming that the Governor's initiative is unfair and that workers have a right to protest, should schools accept these notes from the teachers? And should the hospitals discipline the doctors who hand out fake excuses to protesters?
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I cannot believe that something like this would take place in the United States. How can so many teachers simply not show up to work without punishment? In addition, how can doctors get away with writing sick notes for all of these teachers?
ReplyDeleteTheses teachers are on camera, clearly not sick. The children are the ones who are feeling the affects of the absences of these teachers. It is a teachers job and responsibility to show up to school and teach children. It is there legal and moral obligation to show up day after day and help educate young people.
I am not completely clear on the situation with the governor, but I can imagine it can excuse the behavior of these teachers and doctors.
Although I believe that everyone has a right to protest issues he or she believes to be wrong or unethical, I do not condone the actions of the doctors in this situation. The doctors should not be handing out phony excuses to the teachers no matter how legitimate an argument they have against Governor Walker’s plan. Claiming that they are engaging in “private consultations” with the teachers is a clear abuse of their authority and is making a mockery out of privacy laws. Even though some are only doing it as a symbolic gesture, as we learned in class, professionals, such as doctors, are supposed to have a high-level of self-regulation and should be setting an example for others to follow. Doctors shouldn’t just write fake excuses for patients because they agree with them on a certain issue. I think that instead of accepting the fake notes the school system should support the teachers by counting the day of protest as a paid vacation day possibly. As for the doctors, I think hospitals should consider disciplinary action because the doctors were, in some ways, taking advantage of their position.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the teachers should have the right to protest their belief; however, forging fake doctor's notes is wrong on many levels.
ReplyDeleteIf everyone were yo uses doctor's notes just as an excuse then people will not take them as seriously. How do we know when someone actually needed to be excused for a sickness.
The doctors who distributed these notes should be punished. This is forgery.
I totally understand why the teachers are upset and why they are protesting, but to get a doctor's note for a "fake" illness is just ridiculous. There are probably thousands of students who are not learning anything while their teachers are getting PAID with the people's tax money. I personally believe what the teachers are doing is right, however, I do not believe that it is morally right.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, everyone?
ReplyDeleteWe have all faked being sick to get out of school, work, or even a dinner appointment and often times we go to a doctor appointment just to get a note to cover our tracks. I can say I've done it more than once to get money back from missing a flight, and their reason is more morally sound than any of the others.
I feel like it's only an issue because the school didn't expect doctors to participate and so they're upset the teachers found a loop hole. A couple of you mentioned that students are wasting time not learning- it's been like what, three days, kids would take that much off just because of a flu. The issue here is that teachers don't get the respect from schools that most of them deserve, and that is a very basic right. I'm actually pleasantly surprised because doctors get a lot of respect professionally and socially so the fact that they would help others out is pretty decent of them. The school should accept those notes as valid and if they want the kids back in school they should confront the issue and not make it about doctors giving out notes.
Firstly, I'd like to address the point that was made that "it was only 3 days" that the students were not learning anything. The amount of time that the students were not learning is the issue at hand. The problem here, like Kant would point out is "what if everyone did that?". What if everyone took sick days for three consecutive days, or even more? The world would become chaotic.
ReplyDeleteSure, teachers, as well as any human being has a right to protest against laws/rules that they find unethical to which they do not condone. HOWEVER, to take three consecutive days off of work is absolutely unacceptable, especially with regards to the children who are losing their education in a public system that is not up to standards (kids in America don't score top ten countries in math or science).
On the Doctors behalf, Doctor's are supposed to be filling out sick notes for people who are actually sick. Not to people who just felt like missing school and want to get paid.
If these teachers felt SO strongly about protesting they wouldn't mind taking the pay cut right?
Seems to be they're just rebelling.
Maybe it's time for us all to take a look at America's teachers and doctors, the people who are the most-looked-up-to, and ask what if all teachers and doctors did that?
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/11/walkouts_bank_boycotts_and_recalls_wisconsin
ReplyDeleteIn the case above, 1000 students felt so compelled by the unfairness of the situation that they walked to the Capitol in a show of support for teachers' right to bargain. You can say "why can't they just accept less money" but that's not reflecting what's right for teachers OR students. There are some professions that deserve at least society's respect and that is obviously absent when teachers are being withheld from the right to even speak up. They deserve fair compensation for the invaluable work that they do, and they deserve to right to speak up if they don't feel respected in that manner, especially when students obviously agree. And it is very possible to make up that time at a later date by postponing summer break three days. And to answer the question, if everyone reacted when they felt professionally disrespected, then no one would disrespect them and make it into an issue of days off or doctors note instead of resolving the situation.
While I do understand that teachers are upset that if they miss a day of work they miss a whole days pay, my mom works at a school and it is the same issue for her, however it was very unethical for the Doctors to hand out doctors notes to all the teachers protesting, it is as if they are making a joke of the whole process of needing a doctors note and mocking the hippocratic oath they took to become a doctor. I understand the teachers are throwing it in their administrations face by saying "Here look here's my doctors note," but it is the doctors who are setting a bad example and tarnishing their reputations
ReplyDelete