What place for advocacy and political engagement? Ethical reflection on the role of the clinician and researcher
Deborah LAUWERS, Marie PISSOORT, Nick MANO and Marwa AHMED
We are researchers and clinicians. Our research covers interdisciplinary topics aimed at improving primary care practices in the areas of access to care, social inequalities in health, health promotion, etc. We are aware that we are in a unique position, both as witnesses and actors in the realities on the ground. We also believe that we are sometimes led to form judgments based on our values, without always having the opportunity to go through the complete scientific process. We would like to propose an ethical reflection on this particular position of clinician and researcher. We will examine our feelings as individuals and the moral conflicts in which we find ourselves. We will feed our debate with the concepts of “positivism” and “constructivism.” We will also analyse the historical construction of the notion of “neutrality” in medicine (whether in clinical care or academia). We take the position of addressing these questions at the beginning of our careers, based on the assumption that these ethical considerations are shared by other clinician and researchers, both young and experienced.Have a collective brainstorming session on these ethical concepts that affect us all to varying degrees. Refine our position and strengthen our capacity for action.We plan to discuss these topics in a forum of reflexion with collective intelligence facilitation tools and small groups discussions. – Introduction with a discussion of the concepts used (positivism, constructivism, neutrality) and examples of scientists and clinicians who have had different levels of engagement in society (15min). – Moving exercise in which participants position themselves in the room according to their views on these different types of engagement (academic researcher, clinician, militant, citizen) (10min). – Discussion in small groups about their personal experiences and feelings (20min). – Return in plenary session (15min).A collective and a personal reflection on the researcher's commitment to their subject of study.We believe that WONCA is a place for debate, to strengthen our critical thinking skills and our position as clinicians and researchers.
