Patient Informed Consent from Partially Uninformed Physicians

The title of this thread clearly sets the topic to be discussed.  Informed consent by a patient for an examination or medical-surgical procedure is an established ethical and legal act which has been even more focused throughout the medical profession in the recent decades when previous professional paternalism behavior dissolved to patient autonomy.  However established the practice is preached, the act still depends on several factors. With regard to the patient becoming informed about the details of the examination and procedure, it requires the patient or patient's surrogate making a decision to comprehend what is being communicated, understanding the words and implications of what was learned but also feeling free and comfortable to ask the physician questions about details told and about information which had not been presented but which is of concern to the patient.  These details therefore must be presented directly by the healthcare professional who will be responsible for the exam or procedure and not only by text on a sheet of paper to be read and signed.With regard to the professional who provides the details to the patient, the information presented should be in a form which is the best for patient understanding and decision-making.  The talk should be comprehensible both in terminology and in how it is presented. The detailing should not be "rushed through" but slow enough for the patient to hear clearly what was said  but also slow enou...
Source: Bioethics Discussion Blog - Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Source Type: blogs