Key Points about Informed Consent

00:01 Alright. So that's the summary of thinking about informed consent or informed decision making.

00:07 We'll talk about decision making capacity in a future lecture, but we've touched on it a little bit.

00:12 These are things I think are really important for you to consider when you're doing the informed consent process.

00:17 It's always the point that you should practice patient centered care.

00:20 Really trying to focus your discussion on the patient in front of you, and what's going to be best for them.

00:27 Use understandable language.

00:29 Make it so that the patient can comprehend what you're saying, don't just use medical jargon.

00:34 Be culturally sensitive, so understand where the patient comes from the cultural background.

00:39 and make sure that you're sensitive to their viewpoint and how they might make decisions.

00:47 Learn their context. So not just the condition, the disease,or the illness, or the diagnosis that you've made, but understand the whole context of their life and how this impacts on their life.

01:01 They said, it's important to have transparency.

01:03 So share your thought process.

01:04 I think it's important for the physician to give a recommendation.

01:08 So give that recommendation and why you think that this is going to be best for them.

01:12 Knowing everything that you do.

01:15 Make it a dialogue. The ask, tell ask is a means of making sure it's information exchange.

01:21 It's not just a one way, soliloquy by the physician of disclosing information saying, do you agree or not agree? It's really going back and forth.

01:28 And making sure you're asking questions, giving the patient the opportunity to ask questions of you.

01:35 Once you've gone through the process, checking their understanding, can they describe it in language that they would use? How would they describe it to a family member, if someone asked them in the future? Like what did the doctor say to you? Explore their preferences, their goals.

01:52 Some of that's culturally determined, some of that's based on their life context.

01:56 But all those things are important. What are they hoping to achieve, if they treat this condition or pursue that the recommendation that you've made.

02:07 And the ultimate goal really is to be a teacher to the patient.

02:11 Help the patient to make an informed decision.

02:15 So hopefully that gives you some guidelines and some background on doing the informed consent process.