Professional Interaction with a Patient who Insisted Contributing to Decision-making
Changes in culture and technology have resulted in patient populations that are often well informed and educated, even before consulting or considering a healthcare need delivered by a health professional. Fueled by this, health professionals are increasingly involving patients in treatment decisions. However, this often comes with challenges, as illnesses and treatments can become complex.
What has your experience been with patient involvement in treatment or healthcare decisions?
In this Discussion, you will share your experiences and consider the impact of patient involvement (or lack of involvement). You will also consider the use of a patient decision aid to inform best practices for patient care and healthcare decision making.
To Prepare:
Review the Resources and reflect on a time when you experienced a patient being brought into (or not being brought into) a decision regarding their treatment plan.
Review the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute’s Decision Aids Inventory at https://decisionaid(dot)ohri(dot)ca/.
Choose “For Specific Conditions,” then Browse an alphabetical listing of decision aids by health topic.
NOTE: To ensure compliance with HIPAA rules, please DO NOT use the patient’s real name or any information that might identify the patient or organization/practice.
By Day 3 of Week 11
Post a brief description of the situation you experienced and explain how incorporating or not incorporating patient preferences and values impacted the outcome of their treatment plan. Be specific and provide examples. Then, explain how including patient preferences and values might impact the trajectory of the situation and how these were reflected in the treatment plan. Finally, explain the value of the patient decision aid you selected and how it might contribute to effective decision making, both in general and in the experience you described. Describe how you might use this decision aid inventory in your professional practice or personal life.
Providing care to a vegan in the emergency room. with limited diet options but also trying to give nutrition and protein. Provide details on diet- no meat or meat containing products but trying to incorporate a therapeutic environment with protein that strengthens muscles and promote healing
Decision Making
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Decision Making
Advancements in technology have changed the perceptions that healthcare attracts. As technology advance, people become more knowledgeable in different aspects concerning their health. Before visiting a healthcare facility, some patients check through online sources to ascertain the nature of their symptoms. This change has steered changes in the manner in which professionals approach diagnosis. To ease their work, some professionals indulge patients in decision-making. While such a strategy can ease outcomes, it is not always the correct strategy to employ. This paper assesses a professional interaction with a patient who insisted on contributing to the decision-making process. Patient involvement in decision-making should be measured because according them full control of the processes can lead to improper decisions.
AC is a 25-year-old lady who visited the facility after showcasing symptoms of an infection in her urinary tract. Some of the symptoms that the patient presented included the feeling of the urge to urinate frequently, s burning sensation during urination, abdominal pain, blood in the urine, and cloudy urine with odor. The patient insisted that she was suspecting bladder cancer. She noted that the same symptoms were evident when her friend was diagnosed with bladder cancer a year ago. After the completion of a urinalysis, the patient was directed to take medication for UTI. The patient still insisted on more tests to rule out bladder cancer.
The case of AC is a reflection of some of the challenges that healthcare professionals undergo when including patients in clinical decisions. Primarily, it can amount to a wastage of resources. According to Wong (2021), healthcare professionals are trained to have an insight into some of the illnesses that patients face before conducting some laboratory tests. There are multiple diagnose that can be conducted through physical examination and an understanding of the patient’s symptoms. Even if the professional has to conduct a test, the suggestions are normally close to the actual illnesses leading to proper management of resources and time. When patients are involved in the decisions, the healthcare professional can be encouraged to conduct a test that is purely irrelevant to the presented symptoms. Such activities amount to wastage of time and resources like in the case of AC. In worse-case scenarios, healthcare professionals can be indulged in treating the wrong illnesses, which can harm the patient even more.
There are more challenges involved when accommodating patients in clinical decisions. Principally, involving patients in treatment decisions can also risk the live...