Can doctors be taught virtue?

Abstract

Medical schools and residency programs have become very adept at teaching medical students and residents an enormous amount of information. However, it is much less clear whether they are effective at fostering virtuous qualities like empathy or professionalism in trainees. This would come as no surprise to Plato, who famously argued in the Meno that virtue cannot be taught. This pedagogical challenge threatens to stymie medical educators, who increasingly recognize the importance of professionalism, compassion, and empathy in the practice of good medicine. As medical educators, we are motivated to demonstrate that virtue is teachable and to find a way to do so, as this is how we will be able to improve the conduct of physicians and the quality of their care of patients. As such, we address the question of the teachability of virtue in the realm of medicine, analysing Plato's contradictory analyses in the Meno and Protagoras, and drawing upon modern neuroscience to turn an empirical lens on the question. We explore the ways in which Noddings' Ethic of Care may offer a way forward for medical educators keen to foster virtue in trainees. We conclude by demonstrating how, by harnessing the power of caring relationships, the principles of Noddings' Ethic of Care have already been applied to medical education at a university in Israel.