Nonmaleficence in medical training: Balancing patient care and efficient education.

The principle of nonmaleficence requires that every medical action be weighed against all benefits, risks, and consequences, occasionally deeming no treatment to be the best treatment. In medical education, it also applies to performing tasks appropriate to an individual's level of competence and training. Students, residents, and attending physicians alike maintain a beneficence-based responsibility to patients, and attending physicians have a fiduciary responsibility to educate younger generations of doctors.