ABSTRACT
Medical humanists whose focus of work relates to narrative and rhetorical issues in medicine would be inclined to regard the project of implementation science as a rhetorical endeavour: the aim is, by means of representation and translation, to persuade non-scientists of the value of scientific conceptualization and of subsequent action – making choices in life – grounded in this understanding. The present challenge of vaccinating people in the context of a pandemic suggests how crucial such a rhetorical effort may be to the accomplishment of effective, ethical care. As Aristotle would have us recognize, though, persuasion is to be accomplished by means of balancing logos (reason), pathos (emotion), and ethos (character) in communicative performance. This essay examines the ways that medical education prepares physicians for the rhetorical endeavour of the implementation science that is a dimension of ethical clinical care. The rhetorical project of implementation science, after all, as it is to be conducted in clinical medicine, needs to take a careful look at the cultivation of good character, for a good, compassionate, caring person has the credibility to be believed as a prophet of the benefits of science.
