Abstract

GRUPO TRANSFUNCIONAL EN ETICA CLINICA. Ethnography and values in medicine: qualitative study of clinical practice in a cardiology hospital in Mexico. Cuicuilco [online]. 2011, vol.18, n.52, pp.115-132. ISSN 0185-1659.

The strengthening of a medicine that considers an inseparable pairing of the Medicine Based on Evidences (MBE) and the Medicine Based on Values (MBV) is one of the current challenges of the biomedical sciences. Both paradigms directly affect the process of the clinical decisions during the daily practice of health professionals. This research aims to approach -through ethnographic anthropological reconstruction- health personnel working in a highly specialized hospital in Mexico, so as to understand the values displayed in their daily working environment from the analysis of the correlation between aspects such as career education, life history and their ethical discernment in the doctor-patient relationship. This study is a qualitative approach to cross-functional contemporary medical practice. It was found that the valuable aspects -for the respondents- are the ethics of the clinical practice related to justice, benevolence and trust and, at the same time, they are hoping for changes in the institutional sphere in order to improve the way they carry out their functions, including a more humanized attention for the patients.

Keywords : medicine based on evidences; medicine based on values; Ethnography; axiology; clinical ethics.