I’m not implying every nurse or doctor does this, but couldn’t come up with a better title.

A cognizant patient is above all a free person. A free person is free to accept and to deny care, whatever may come. It’s his life, let him live his life as he sees fit. Explain, educate, inform and then ask: do you understand that if we don’t do this you may die / lose a limb / lose your liver / fall down and have a stroke and end up bed bound if we’re lucky enough to save your life?

I don’t understand the logic playing mental gymnastics to make a patient stay at a unit because the nurse or doctor in charge are convinced it’s in the patient’s best interest to do so, even when after education he wants to leave. I’m the odd one at my unit, as most of my coworkers do vehemently disagree with me, as they expect me to provide care AND to care. They feel they lost if a patient leaves against medical advice.

To me it looks like they don’t understand individual freedom and forget that a patient is still a free person. I wouldn’t want to be my coworkers’ patient.

You cannot stop grown ups from making stupid choices. The cognizant patient gets to decide his answer. Not a nurse or doctor convinced they get to decide for the patient.

Another problem I see: say you force a cognizant patient to stay at your unit because you are convinced you are doing the right thing. Why do you think he’s going to be a pleasant patient to work with? People lash out when they feel trapped and they insult and punch personnel. What’s the point?

Punched coworkers will call in sick and start looking for jobs elsewhere, some insulted ones too.

Wouldn’t it be better to inform, document, let him leave, move on?

  • gandalf_der_12te
    131·
    6 days ago

    I’m not in healthcare either and I totally see your point.

    But, i guess, the situation is complicated. What do you do with a 7 year old child who doesn’t want to go to school? Send them anyways, probably, tell them they have to because it’s good for them. Now, why do parents behave that way? Because they assume the child doesn’t understand the full implications of their choices.

    With patients it’s a bit similar. Sure you can tell them they’re going to die if they refuse medication, but will they really understand the depthness of that? Probably they can’t even imagine it, idk. Could you imagine your own death? I guess for a lot of people that’s just a difficult thing to imagine, possibly also because monkey brain conveniently completely has a blind spot for that option (remember people driving recklessly, for an example).

    So, you have to estimate: Does the person really fully understand what’s happening, or are they just brushing it off as an “yes the doctor wants to scare me to give more expensive treatment, extracting money out of me” thingy. You can’t assume all patients have studied medicine and understand the deep connections. Does the person really know what they’re talking about, or are they only looking at things at a superficial level?