Patient Preference and Decision Making
QUESTION
Discussion: Patient Preferences and 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.ohri.ca/.
o 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.
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.
Patient Preference and Decision Making
ANSWER
Patient Preference and Decision Making
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Patient Preference and Decision Making
Modern health care facilities currently emphasize on involving patients in the decision making concerning their treatment plans. The patient decision aid is a medical tool that assists people in becoming part of the medical decision on how their illnesses should or should not be handled and the expected outcome (to z summary results, 2019). This aid also allows patients to state their values and provide more information about their preferences (Ali, 2018). I work at a clinic in downtown Ottawa, and we mainly deal with family planning and fertility checks. Last month, a couple walked into the clinic for some medical assistance.
The couple had been together for a while and were settling down to have children. At the clinic, we handle several similar cases, including checking on our patients’ reproductive systems and offering guidance to what is necessary to practice. This couple had been under birth control pills for a duration of time, which had adverse side effects on the woman’s body. She experienced high blood pressure as well as delays in resuming her ovulation, and that seemed to affect her conceiving ability
The best way to handle the patient’s situation involved discontinuation of the use of control pills. Alternatively, injecting her with hormonal boosting medication was vital for her treatment plan. The patient preferred drugs that were meloxicam free as she explained that meloxicam had, in the past, had adverse side effects on her. She instead suggested the use of a dopamine agonist, understandably so, as it reduces prolactin hormone in the body (Kallner & Danielsson, 2016). We incorporated her preference with other iron-boosting medicine and gave her a duration to see how her body reacted to the new change.
One week later, the couple returned, and their results were positive. Her body had reacted positively to the new drugs, as her blood pressure had improved. Her medical preference, combined with our professionalism, yielded the anticipated favorable results. From this scenario, I drew that the patient decision aid is essential to achieve the desired result under a unanimous decision. Patients best know their bodies; therefore, I consider factoring patient’s preferential drug and treatment in my practice in bit to ensure patients satisfaction in their hospital experience.
References
A to Z summary results [Web log post]. (2019, June 26). Retrieved from https://decisionaid.ohri.ca/Azsumm.php?ID=1046
Ali, A. T. (2018). Fertility drugs and ovarian cancer. Current Cancer Drug Targets, 18(6), 567-576.
Kallner, H. K., & Danielsson, K. G. (2016). Prevention of unintended pregnancy and use of contraception—important factors for preconception care. Upsala journal of medical sciences, 121(4), 252-255.