In the medical world, it is often essential to get consent from a patient in order to go-ahead with a procedure. And if the patient is to give consent, he has to of course have the capacity for decision making.
Doctors begin determining capacity by asking a few simple questions like "Do you know where you are?" or "Can you tell me today's date?" and so on. Then move on to harder questions to determine if the patient truly understands the risks and benefits of the procedure. Obviously it becomes infinitely more difficult to go-ahead with a procedure that a patient needs, if they lack decision making capacity. Which is why the following real life dialogue is so funny...
Med student: "Mr. Smith, can you tell me where you live?"
Mr. Smith: "Home..."
Med student: ((whew...))
Mr. Smith: "...Depot"
Med student: ((shuffling papers to find the social worker's extension))
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1 comment:
HAHAHAHAHAH! Its disturbing how real that is...the only thing worse is when the attending is questionable. My attending said this today "There is also a kung fu academy to consider. So the question is Bruce Lee or Kung fu." then he spent half an hour deciding where to enroll to master martial arts. oh radio...
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