Today was focused on a menagerie of topics. The two that really hit me were informed consent and shared decision making. Both are simple ideas that can be easily integrated into practice but there seems to be a constant struggle to utilize these concepts in a patient centered manner. I never realized that shared decision making was a difficult concept that others struggle to integrate into their practice since my school teaches it as part of standard practice and the concept of not including that seems so foreign to me because of that. But I guess that just further demonstrates how things are changing in medicine, when the new generation is being taught something from the get go and never knew that other options existed. Informed consent is also a really important thing that I think we as health practitioners do not give enough attention too. Its so important for the patient to be able to make a solid decision based on all the evidence and have it explained to them so that they can understand it. The weakness in informed consent really demonstrates a lot of failings in the modern medical field such as health literacy issues, shared decision making or lack thereof, and lack of time for clinicians to spend with their patients. Thankfully as the healthcare field transitions from the fee for service to a value based model, clinicians will have more incentive to spend time with their patients to explain things which will help improve informed consent, health literacy, and shared decision making.
