Professionalism: COVID-19 made me do it!

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

COVID-19 pandemic has created profound ethical challenges, not only for clinical decision-making but also for defining physician professional conduct.

RECENT FINDINGS

Multiple ethical questions arose as the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged globally, including physician obligations in a pandemic, allotment of personal protective equipment, care of unvaccinated patients, discern between evidence-based and unreliable information, addressing end-of-life wishes, implications of involving medical students in a public health crisis, and finally physician burnout aggravated by a pandemic.

SUMMARY

There is a need to redefine existing medical professionalism standards so that future healthcare professionals are well prepared to deal with similar public health crisis.