Medical Doctors Not Educating Patients

University of Washington researchers found that doctors do not conduct discussions that enable patients to understand fully their treatment options.

“Do patients really know what they’re getting when they take that new drug or agree to that ground breaking surgery?” is the question asked according to a recent study in the latest Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers found that the answer may be no.

According to the study, most patients have too little decision-making dialog with their doctors. It was reported that with patients, there is very little discussion about the understanding of treatments or procedures they are about to receive.

Doctors Don’t Talk, Just Push Drugs
The study found that there was little to no discussion with doctors and patients, they just pushed prescriptions. “Get this prescription filled” is what was said. When the patient asked what the prescription was for, the doctors answer was “Oh, you’ve taken it before.”

Communication The Key To Success
Most agree that doctor-patient communication, is what is needed most. “Take two aspirin and call me in the morning” is only recently being realized as an ineffective method of caretaking.

Source:
ABC News – Uninformed Consent: New Concern About Patients’ Decision-making
MSNBC – Doctors leaving patients uninformed