Committee opinion no. 500: Professional responsibilities in obstetric-gynecologic medical education and training.

The education of health care professionals is essential to maintaining standards of medical competence and access to care by patients. Inherent in the education of health care professionals is the problem of disparity in power and authority, including the power of teachers over learners and the power of practitioners over patients. Although there is a continuum of supervision levels and independence from student to resident to fellow, the ethical issues that arise during interactions among all teachers, learners, and their patients are similar. In this Committee Opinion, the Committee on Ethics of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists discusses and offers recommendations regarding the professional conduct and ethical responsibilities of practitioners toward patients and participants in research in educational settings; of learners and teachers toward one another; and of institutions toward patients, learners, and teachers.