Had not been of electronics devices with video recording capabilities inside an operating room, there could have been no uploaded clip of a rectal procedure on the internet which elicited much controversy after thousands of You tube users had viewed it. This video clip, had been picked up by network stations and other media and broadcasted it around the world.
The controversial video has brought embarrassment to the Department of Health and the medical community. The video which appeared in You Tube (internet video-sharing site) showed nurses and surgeons laughing and cheering while a canister was being removed from male patient’s rectum in an operating room.
Because of the extent of the moral damage it had created, particularly to the patient, the Commission of Higher Education now prohibits the use of cellphones and videocams in clinical classes. CHED chairman Romulo Neri, (a controversial personality also because of his refusal to disclose what he knows about the ZTE broadband scam controversy during the Philippine Senate’s investigation) banned medical students from bringing in these video- recording capable devices such as video cameras, mobile phones with camera features and other similar equipment in their clinical classes. The objective is to prevent similar incident to happen again in the future –uploading surgery procedure in the internet. Apart from this, medical students in the Philippines are now banned from videotaping any form of surgeries.
Neri, on his part, also explained that his order was only meant “to ensure that the integrity of all activities concerning the exercise or practice of related learning experience of nursing and other medical students are properly supervised and monitored.”
Ethical Standards in Medical Practice
Neri’s action is just one little step to impress upon the minds of medical/nursing students the importance/ significance of observing professional ethics and discipline. With growing number of cases of medical malpractice in the Philippines now witnessed in the Philippines, the most critical and practical area of intervention is in the school. How serious are medical schools in doing their part?
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