Relationskompetence som etisk praksis

This article investigates how relational competence can be of use for GPs to act in accor-dance with the ethical obligations, which are rooted in general practice as an institution. The ethical principles described by Lægeforeningen (The Danish Medical Association) sta-tes the prerequisite for GPs’ ability to act according to ethical obligations upon entering the medical establishment, though not limited to general practice. In the article we explore the application of the concept relational competence for general practitioners (GPs) in gene-ral practice as an institution, in which we will describe how these ethical principles can be enacted. Relational competence overlaps terms such as ’interpersonal skills’ and ’commu-nicative skills’ among others. We use conversation analysis (CA) while at the same time applying relational competence through a combined analysis method, to be able to point out interactional examples of relationally competent actions. The findings point to an applica-tion of relational competence for GPs working with asymmetry as a precondition. It is di-scussed on which fields of study the investigation can contribute. The article concludes that relational competence could be useful in general practice to operationalize and point out how GPs can live up to the ethical obligations of their work by regarding their patient with acknowledgement and acceptance along with acknowledgement of their own reactions as a part of being an authentic professional. The relationally competent actions were identified by drawing on methodology of Conversation Analysis; ‘preference’ to identify acknowled-gement and acceptance, and ‘assessment’ to identify authenticity within professionalism.