Whistleblowing in medicine and in Homer'sIliad

Abstract

'Thinking with Homer', or drawing creatively on themes and scenes from Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, can help us to better understand medical culture and practice. One current, pressing, issue is the role of the whistleblower, who recognises and exposes perceived poor practice or ethical transgressions that compromise patient care and safety. Once, whistleblowers were ostracised where medical culture closed ranks. However, in a new era of public accountability, medicine looks to formally embrace whistleblowing to the point that not reporting transgressions can now constitute a transgression of professionalism. Where medical students identify with the history and traditions of medical culture, they inevitably find themselves in situations of conflicting loyalties if they encounter senior clinicians behaving unprofessionally. What are the implications of facing these dilemmas for students in terms of role modelling and shaping of character as a doctor, and how might a study of Homer help with such dilemmas? We suggest that a close reading of an opening scene in Homer's the Iliad can help us to better appreciate such ethical dilemmas. We link this with the early Greek tradition of parrhesia or 'truth telling', where frankly speaking out against perceived injustice is encouraged as resistance to power and inappropriate use of authority. We encourage medical educators to openly discuss perceived ethical dilemmas with medical students, and medicine as a culture to examine its conscience in a transition from an authoritarian to an 'open' society, where whistleblowing becomes as acceptable and necessary as good hygiene on the wards.

Improving health care quality: the implementation of whistleblowing

“…In the literature there is still little evidence on the organisational requisites for the effective implementation of whistleblowing practices in health care. Notwithstanding, scholars are consistent in recognising the role of these practices in health care (Rodulson et al , 2015); however, they are still calling for a deeper understanding of whistleblowing systems support in the detection of wrongdoing in a specific corporate environment (Lee and Fargher, 2013).…”

Contributions of Hippocratic medicine and Plato to today’s debate over health, social determinants and the authority of biomedicine

“…See, eg, Bredlau 2021; Goldstein 2019; Marshall and Bleakley 2009, 2013; Bleakley et al . 2014; and Rodulson et al . 2015.…”

Historical empathy and medicine: Pathography and empathy in Sophocles’ Philoctetes

“…Recently, and during the COVID-19 pandemic in particular, there has been a kind of reinvention of Greek tragedy:Rushton et al (2020) in the discussion of the events presented by the Theater of War for Frontline Medical Providers, namely dramatic readings of scenes from ancient Greek plays for audiences of medical providers, point out that "ancient Greek plays about chronic and terminal illness, moral distress, the challenges of witnessing suffering… can be used to forge a common vocabulary for openly engaging doctors, nurses, students, and other health-care professionals in creating constructive dialogue, fostering understanding, compassion, and a renewed sense of community". Another exception are the works ofBleakley and Marshall (2012);Bleakley et al (2014);Marshall and Bleakley (2008, 2011 andRodulson et al (2015) on Homer, especially Bleakley (2009, pp. 7-12, and 2017, pp.…”