The aristotelian ethics of collaborative care

Collaborative care is common among health care practitioners, serving multiple benefits for the patients. Clinical procedures are in place to serve as a checklist, ensuring that the proper means of treatment is provided. This essay details an Aristotelian ethics that defines teleology, that which achieves the final good. In the sense of the patient's telos, the rehabilitation clinician should be viewed as a co-laborer in working towards this end, rather than a means showing that a process was followed. This distinction is important when determining the optimal care for the patient. The works of Aristotelian ethicists Edmund Pellegrino and Alysdair MacIntyre are introduced in describing teleology, science, art, virtue, and practice. Two cases are presented that show how, in current practice, collaborative care is used differently in achieving the final good as defined by the patient. Finally, the model of International Classification of Functioning, Disease, and Disability (ICF) distinguishes how the viewpoint of physicians can differ from that of rehabilitation clinicians.