In the digital health era, collegiality as an ethical resource against healthcare professionals’ loneliness

Abstract

Background

During Covid waves, the management of hospital overload, selection of patients admitted to intensive care, isolation of the general population, revealed the importance of political and economic choices, explicit or not, which involve our entire society. The current degraded functioning of the hospital system in various western countries has accentuated social tensions that are at the origin of a real existential suffering felt by all.

Methodology

Our hypothesis that in the post-Covid 19 era, two mains ethical issues raised for health care professionals: the risk of healthcare professionals’ loneliness and the impact of digital technology on the medical decision-making process.

Results/discussion

First, we discuss the loneliness according Arendt's philosophy, in which loneliness extinguishes all capacity for initiative and action and meaning losing the link with patient and other healthcare professional. Second, we explain how that digital technology is a risk for clinical intelligence and the healthcare relationship, producing a process of disappearance of the heart of care by substituting the action of a care shared with others to a form of doing that has become essentially operational. Then, we argue that debate and collegiality, which means deciding together by consensus and based on reflection, is essential to prevent these risks.

Conclusion/perspectives

Clinical ethics must foster multidisciplinary discussions in the decision-making process and restore the ability of caregivers to decide, at the origin of collective action in care.