The new "Hippocratic" oath
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First-year medical student Sean Sweat "didn't want to tiptoe around" issues of race when she sat down with 11 of her classmates to write a new version of the medical profession's venerable Hippocratic oath.
"We start our medical journey amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, and a national civil rights movement reinvigorated by the killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery," begins the alternate version of the oath, rewritten for the class of 2024 at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
It continues: "We honor the 700,000-plus lives lost to COVID-19, despite the sacrifices of health care workers."
Sweat and the other incoming first-year medical students recited this newly penned pledge, along with a traditional version of the Hippocratic oath, as part of orientation activities during their first week of medical school this fall.
The earliest known version of the Hippocratic oath dates back to the fifth century B.C. Many iterations exist, and in many U.S. medical schools it has become customary for incoming medical students to write and even recite their own versions; many of the variants include language that prohibits discrimination or bias in the practice of medicine.
What's distinctive about the University of Pittsburgh version is that it specifically names people who have died recently at the hands of police and thereby addresses events that are still unfolding.
"Our oath can be both timely and timeless," Sweat says.
Increasingly, medical professionals are joining protests for racial justice and acknowledging racism's impact on public health. For example, Black residents of Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is the county seat, have been disproportionately hurt by the coronavirus, as have Blacks in other parts of the United States. Though 13% of Allegheny County is Black, Black residents make up nearly 19% of cases and 30% of COVID-19 hospitalizations.
Call it whatever you want, but when you add words to it, it's not the "Hippocratic" oath. It's, well, an "oath."
Also, I took the oath. But not when I entered medical school. It was at my graduation from medical school, when I stopped being a student and became a physician.
Where's that "virtue signaling" pic I posted a while ago.
@George-K said in The new "Hippocratic" oath:
Call it whatever you want, but when you add words to it, it's not the "Hippocratic" oath. It's, well, an "oath."
Surely the "Hippocratic oath" must have evolved since it was first written, supposedly around
300 B.C., no? Do new doctors still cite the names of various Greek gods when they recite the "Hippocratic oath"?This article lays out some aspects of how the "Hippocratic oath" has evolved, not just semantically, but constitutionally. It even cites this statistics: "According to a 1989 survey, barely half of U.S. medical schools used any form of the Hippocratic Oath and only 2% used the original." So it seems there already are many versions of the "Hippocratic oath", why not one more?
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@Axtremus said in The new "Hippocratic" oath:
Do new doctors still cite the names of various Greek gods when they recite the "Hippocratic oath"?
No idea. I swore "by Apollo..."
So it seems there already are many versions of the "Hippocratic oath", why not one more?
If there are many versions, I'll leave it up to you do discern what the differences in content, rather than language, exist among these disparate oaths.
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Interesting stuff ...
https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/solemn-truth-about-medical-oaths...
While nearly all U.S. medical school graduations include a public promise, and some use an updated version of Hippocrates’ words, not a single student utters the original Hippocratic Oath.Instead, today’s medical students recite a vast — and growing — range of oaths. In 2015, more than half of medical school graduations featured an oath unique to that school, compared to 9% in 1982, according to a 2017 Academic Medicine study. What’s more, students increasingly work together before graduations and white coat ceremonies to choose or craft their own oaths, creating a personalized declaration of what it means to be a physician.
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In more recent times, a few other oaths became popular. One, the 1948 Declaration of Geneva, was drafted by the World Medical Association after Nazi physicians conducted barbarous medical experiments. It promises never to act “contrary to the laws of humanity.” Another, a 1964 oath penned by Tufts University School of Medicine Dean Louis Lasagna, MD, emphasizes prevention over cure and a more holistic approach to medicine.
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Now Yale is among the 17% of surveyed schools that have an annual process for writing, revising, or selecting an oath. At Yale, the oath is written during a pregraduation course, explains Angoff. Each year, she says, “the students end up with a really personal and beautiful oath.”
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Interesting stuff ...
https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/solemn-truth-about-medical-oaths...
While nearly all U.S. medical school graduations include a public promise, and some use an updated version of Hippocrates’ words, not a single student utters the original Hippocratic Oath.Instead, today’s medical students recite a vast — and growing — range of oaths. In 2015, more than half of medical school graduations featured an oath unique to that school, compared to 9% in 1982, according to a 2017 Academic Medicine study. What’s more, students increasingly work together before graduations and white coat ceremonies to choose or craft their own oaths, creating a personalized declaration of what it means to be a physician.
...
In more recent times, a few other oaths became popular. One, the 1948 Declaration of Geneva, was drafted by the World Medical Association after Nazi physicians conducted barbarous medical experiments. It promises never to act “contrary to the laws of humanity.” Another, a 1964 oath penned by Tufts University School of Medicine Dean Louis Lasagna, MD, emphasizes prevention over cure and a more holistic approach to medicine.
...
Now Yale is among the 17% of surveyed schools that have an annual process for writing, revising, or selecting an oath. At Yale, the oath is written during a pregraduation course, explains Angoff. Each year, she says, “the students end up with a really personal and beautiful oath.”
...@Axtremus said in The new "Hippocratic" oath:
At Yale, the oath is written during a pregraduation course, explains Angoff. Each year, she says, “the students end up with a really personal and beautiful oath.”
...Nice. But is it "Hippocratic?"
You can swear to anything you want. Don't attribute it to Hippocrates if he didn't say the words, even allowing for translation.
In 2015, more than half of medical school graduations featured an oath unique to that school, compared to 9% in 1982,
I graduated in 1976. That makes me a geezer, and, perhaps, someone who respects tradition.
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@George-K , kindly share, if you are willing, the exact wording of the "Hippocratic oath" that you took back in 1970-something, I want to see how well it matches up to other "oaths" that are also called "Hippocratic oath" by other accredited medical schools and/or historical text. With any luck, I just might destroy the north star that you thought is the one and only true ethical guide for your entire four decade plus medical career. What say you?
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University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Class of 2024 Oath
As the entering class of 2020, we start our medical journey amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and a national civil rights movement reinvigorated by the killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery. We honor the 700,000+ lives lost to COVID-19, despite the sacrifices of health care workers.
We recognize the fundamental failings of our health care and political systems in serving vulnerable communities. This oath is the first step in our enduring commitment to repairing the injustices against those historically ignored and abused in medicine: Black patients, Indigenous patients, Patients of Color and all marginalized populations who have received substandard care as a result of their identity and limited resources.
Acknowledging the privilege and responsibility that come with being a physician, I take this oath as a call to action to fulfill my duty to patients, to the medical profession and to society.
Thereby, I pledge as a physician and lifelong student of medicine:
I will support and collaborate with my colleagues across disciplines and professions, while respecting the patient’s vital role on the health care team.
I will honor my physical, mental and emotional health so as to not lessen the quality of care I provide.
I will carry on the legacy of my predecessors by mentoring the next generation of diverse physicians.
I will recognize the pivotal role of ethical research in the advancement of medicine and commit myself to endless scholarship with the ultimate goal of improving patient care.
I will care for my patients’ holistic well-being, not solely their pathology. With empathy, compassion and humility, I will prioritize understanding each patient’s narrative, background and experiences while protecting privacy and autonomy.
I will champion diversity in both medicine and society, and promote an inclusive environment by respecting the perspectives of others and relentlessly seeking to identify and eliminate my personal biases.
I will be an ally to those of low socioeconomic status, the BIPOC community, the LGBTQIA+ community, womxn/women, differently-abled individuals and other underserved groups in order to dismantle the systemic racism and prejudice that medical professionals and society have perpetuated.
I will educate myself on social determinants of health in order to use my voice as a physician to advocate for a more equitable health care system from the local to the global level.
I will restore trust between the health care community and the population in which I serve by holding myself and others accountable, and by combating misinformation in order to improve health literacy.
In making this oath, I embrace the ever-changing responsibilities of being a physician and pledge to uphold the integrity of the profession in the clinic and beyond.
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How about pledging to make some money?
Without it, you wouldn't do any of that elite privilege stuff.
That's the question I would always ask when the corporate team-builder-life-coach types used to come around spreading the gospel.
I was disruptive.
And those 2 white guys are gay.
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@George-K said in The new "Hippocratic" oath:
Only 2 white men. Seems discriminatory to me.
Are you sure about Sean?
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@George-K said in The new "Hippocratic" oath:
Only 2 white men. Seems discriminatory to me.
Are you sure about Sean?
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@George-K said in The new "Hippocratic" oath:
@LuFins-Dad said in The new "Hippocratic" oath:
Are you sure about Sean?
I'm not a biologistJim how would I know? I’m a Doctor, not a biologist.FIFY
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@George-K said in The new "Hippocratic" oath:
@LuFins-Dad said in The new "Hippocratic" oath:
Are you sure about Sean?
I'm not a biologistJim how would I know? I’m a Doctor, not a biologist.FIFY
