The thesis of this chapter states that in certain situations, it is crucial to listen to a medical professional, however, in others, it is very important to listen to yourself and also to do what you feel is right. The author of Complications," Atul Gawane, has written this specific chapter to persuade the reader of his thesis. If the choice you make is incorrect, then it could potentially be a matter of life and death.
In James F. Childress and Mark Siegler’s article, “Metaphors and Models of Doctor-Patient Relationships: Their Implications for Autonomy,” they discuss the types of relationships in healthcare and how those relationships allow the physician and patient to interact to make negotiations. Childress and Siegler say that relationships are either between intimates or between strangers and that when it is between strangers there is a lack of trust because of the way physicians are viewed most days. Because of the way society has turned to rules and regulations and the pluralistic nature of our society, physicians are often viewed as technicians and contractors rather than as parents or friends.
Atul Gawande in his article “Whose body is it, anyway?” introduced couple of cases, which discussed a controversial topic, doctors dealing with patients and making important medical decisions. These are difficult decisions in which people might have life or death choices. Who should make the important decisions, patients or doctors? Patients don’t usually know what is better for their health and while making their decisions, they might ignore or don’t know the possible side effects and consequences of these decisions. Doctors and physicians have more and better knowledge than normal people about human body and they are able to assist their patients while making tough decisions. However, they can not always make the right decision. Doctors can not predict the result of a surgery or a treatment and they do not have enough confidence of the result because sometimes the surgery could go in a way they didn’t expect. Although patients have the right to decide their treatments, doctors and patients should share
According to the article “Letting Doctors Make the Tough Decisions” by Pauline W. Chen, this story talk about how difficult to make a medical decision between doctor and their patients. Back to 50 years ago, doctors are receive a duty to make a decisions for their patient. When it move to 1960s to 1970s, everything is change, a family and patients have more opportunity to make a decision relate on growing up of medical ethicists care of patients. First thing that shows the difference is doctor respect for their patients lead to patient-centered care. Besides, doctors also respect for a person’s autonomy by letting the patient make their own decisions. Nowadays, doctor will be trained to stop ourselves from making a decision for patients. However,
The notion lies at the base of the argument that physicians, even when they do their best, cannot tell their patients the truth. Patients (the argument goes) lack the technical background and experience of physicians, so even intelligent and educated patients are not able to understand the medical terms and concepts physicians must use to describe a patient’s condition. Physicians, if they are to communicate at all with the patient, must then switch to using terms and concepts that neither adequately nor accurately convey to the patient what is wrong with him. Thus, it is impossible for physicians to tell patients the truth”
The public health model is more difficult to define than the other two models due to not everyone understands the concept of public health. The public health model is concerned with individuals’ who have problems but extends the concept of health care beyond just the normal medical treatment due to individuals problems may be linked to social issues as well (Woodside & McClam, 2015). The public health model looks at larger populations and not just individuals by actually collecting data and examining this data to determine the overall problem (Woodside & McClam, 2015). By collecting and examining this data the public health model is used to alleviate health problems that have consequences for society in general, like health insurance for
There are many stakeholders involved with health care administrations. Those stakeholders can be patients, health care physician, insurance providers, pharmaceutical manufactures, hospital organizations, community clinics and government. Each different stakeholder has their own individual vision of health care administration. This causes conflict due to the nature and differences in vision. which then can cause conflicts among each stakeholder involved. A patient is going to have a different idea of how a health care should be managed. This in contrast to the way a physician may think the administration should be managed. Furthermore, each different stakeholder involved would have their own ideal reasons to why the health care administration
This paper will explain the seven principles of patient-clinician communication. It will then apply three of those principles to my interactions with my patients. Next, it will describe three methods being used in my area of practice to improved communication between the patients and clinicians. It will ultimately choose one of those principles that applies best to my practice and clearly describe how I use it. It will describe ethical principles that can be applied to issues with patient-clinician communication. Finally, it will explain the importance of ethics in communication and how patient safety is influenced by good or bad team communication.
“Clinical gaze”, a term coined by French philosopher Michel Foucault from The Birth of the Clinic, deals with the transformation of doctor-patient relationships over time. Since the birth of modern medicine, Foucault states that doctors tend to view their patients more as a disease and less as a person. Before the improvements in science were made during the 19th century, doctor carefully listened to their patients and heavily relied on their narratives to make a diagnosis. Not only were these narratives were a central part to the doctor-patient relationship, but they also helped build a sense of trust within the doctor and individuality within the patient. Doctors were viewed more an “advisor” and “friend” rather than a complete authoritative
Physician-assisted death is the practice in which a physician provides a mentally competent patient with the means to take his/her own life, usually in the form of prescribing death-dealing medications. It first became legal in the United States in Oregon in 1998. It is now legal in four other states: Washington, California, Montana, and Vermont. In order for one to exercise their right to die this way, the law states that the patient must be at least 18 years old, be mentally competent, be diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within six months, and must wait at least fifteen days before filling the death-dealing prescriptions. This controversial practice has raised the question of whether or not it is ethical for a physician
Henrietta Lack was an African American woman born in 1920 who helped science define some of the world’s medical discoveries. Many woman were dying every year from cervical cancer. Little did she know what the future held for her and millions of other people. This situation saddens me as a medical professional because a human was treated as a specimen rather than a person. Even though this was many decades ago, I feel as though there still should have been standard practices in place that prevented this kind of behavior from those who are supposed to be trusted most, health care professionals. The article we had to read in a previous assignment is a wonderful account of Henrietta Lacks life and the impact she made on the world today. It
Moral decisions are not always easy decisions to make. However, necessary means are often provided to fulfill these difficult decisions. In health care, there are certain ethical principles or guidelines that help us make the appropriate choice when it comes to giving the best care to a patient, and they help justify the purpose for providing the best care to a patient. These principles are relevant in our health care system today in order for patient care to be as appropriate and as effective as possible.
The situation could be addressed through the informed shared medical decision, which though has its limitations. Val Jones (2012) notes that the idea of the informed shared medical decision is “as old as the Hippocratic Oath”, but its widespread adoption would “create an extra layer of bureaucracy” (Jones, 2012). In order to understand the validity of this claim, it is recommended to take a look into the innovation. The main idea underlying the informed shared medical decision is that patients should be informed by independent consultants who would help them to make more accurate decision regarding medical interventions. It is suggested that experts hired by a health insurance company or government agency are more objective in their recommendations,
These values, which were emotional detachment, clinical experience, mastering uncertainty, Mechanistic Model, intervention, and emphasis on acute and rare illness are skills that in the medical world are a part of what makes doctors superior and contributes to the hierarchy, which result in negative effects or consequences for patients who are not male white and affluent. Emotional detachment is the idea of separating emotion and attachment from patients. This can impact people of color (POCs), women or poor people badly because doctors won’t pay attention to the emotional or social consequence of illness and stigma (Weitz, 1996). They also may be culturally insensitive or disrespectful when not understanding the implication of certain treatments, asking certain questions or even in the way the doctor engages with patients. Use of the Mechanical Model also can cause the same result. The Mechanical Model is the idea that the body is a machine or factory and looks at illness as a mechanical breakdown. This also relies on reductionist treatment, which is thinking about each body part as a whole more like the auto mechanics do. This similarly to emotional detachment teaches students to look at patients as if they are not people, which can cause a plethora of issues. This can cause doctors to not think holistically about the health of the patients, so on top of that, the doctors more likely than not, may not understanding the racial, gender based or socioeconomic difference that affect the life of the patient and therefore not know to explore those other areas of their health or wellbeing to improve health outcomes (Weitz, 1996). For example, if a patient has type two diabetes, just treating it with insulin and not considering the other
Rely on their professional relationships with patients to tailor their advice to best meet individual patient needs and