Helping our patients with decision making through informed consent

When counseling re risk versus benefits with our patients, it’s important to consider doing it in a “non directive” way.

People often make decisions differently to us, so what we would do, they wouldn’t necessarily do. What is sensible for us, may not be sensible for them at all. What makes sense to us, may not make sense to them. What feels right to us, make not feel right to them.

Of course, we have the power to influence how people choose, but that is not what we want do we?

For feeling based people, it’s more about how they “feel” about it, and how other people in their tribe feel about it.

For logical, data driven individuals, it’s more about the facts, rules, risks, incidence, and current evidence.

Often we have to use both “languages” to effectively facilitate their decision making.

Certainly not easy at all....