How Should Clinicians Determine a Traumatized Patient's Readiness to Return to Work?

Overview

Journal AMA J Ethics

Publisher American Medical Association

Specialty General Medicine

Date 2022 Mar 24

PMID 35324097

Authors

Tabitha E H Moses

Arash Javanbakht

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

A clinician's standard primary role is to treat and monitor their patients' health and to be their ally. Clinicians with obligations to patients and to organizations, however, must also assess patients for nontherapeutic purposes (eg, readiness to resume work). These 2 obligations can conflict, and, when they do, clinicians must balance their duties to patients and to society. We propose criteria clinicians should consider when determining a patient's readiness to return to work and offer recommendations for interpreting factors that influence this decision.

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