Patient Preferences and Decision Making.

Patient Preferences and Decision Making.

 Patient Preferences and Decision Making.

Health care workers are encouraged to engage in Evidence-Based Practice with a focus on patient-centered care. Sometimes it could be challenging for health care workers trying to consider the patient’s family members. It has been proven that engaged nurses have the background of acknowledging the social and cultural factors both in treatment and related social and cultural influence that could lead to more efficient and effective health outcomes. Clinicians must act in the patient’s best interests and use evidence-based decision-making, including their judgment, to help patients make decisions (Melynk & Fineout-Overholt, 2018).

Whenever I plan for my patients, I always want to make their care plan all about them. Patients are more likely to be compliant and follow through when they are included in planning their care. Patients who participate in their decisions making report higher levels of satisfaction with their care; having increased knowledge about conditions, tests, and treatment leads to having more realistic expectations about benefits and harms. Hence, patients are more likely to adhere to screening, diagnostic, or treatment plans.  Having reduced decisional conflict and anxiety are less likely to receive tests or procedures which may be unnecessary and, in some cases, even have improved health outcomes (Krist, Tong, Aycock & Longo, 2017). Also, when completing my assessment, it is always very useful to include this question: “Are there any spiritual or cultural preferences that need to be met while in this facility.”

Although these conversations are complicated and may be unproductive at first, it is critical to encourage patients to be open about their personal goals to inform how clinicians can best meet them. As a psych Nurse, I come across mentally ill patients who oftentimes do not understand the disease process. I have initially encountered a patient with Acute psychosis from Africa; he was brought into the psych Emergency, activated by the family members for bizarre behavior. When the patient started getting better at a point, he presented himself to the clinical team as somebody that must go back to his home country because according to the patient that “whatever he is going through now is a result of not performing the burial rites of his late parents” that was the reason they are tormenting him from the spiritual world and appearing to him in his dreams as well.

The clinical team was taken by surprise to what the patient was claiming as the cause of his ill health but at the same time, had an obligation to respect the patient’s wish. In the end, the patient was discharged from the hospital even though it was uncertain if the patient going back to his country home to perform some cultural ritual rite in order to calm the spirit of his parents in order to help him recover from his mental illness.  It is also essential to respect the decision and preference of the patient during his plan of care. Although these conversations are difficult and maybe unproductive at first, it is critical to encourage patients to be open about their personal goals that will inform how clinicians can best meet them (Lindsey Lord, n.d.). The treatment plan must be based on patient wants and needs to be successful. Patient preferences and values will impact the trajectory of the situation in a positive way if it is based on their preferences and values. If a patient’s preferences and values are disregarded, they most likely will not follow through or be compliant with the care plan because it has nothing to do with their needs and goal.

Reference:

Krist, A.H., Tong, S.T, Aycock, R.A., & Longo, D.R. (2017). Engaging patients in decision-making and behavior change to promote prevention. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6996004

Lord, L. (n.d.). The value of understanding patient preferences in treatment plans and protocols. Retrieved from, https://cipherhealth.com/blog/the-value-of- understanding-patient-preferences-in-treatment-plans-and-protocols/

Melnyk, B. M., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2018). Evidence-based practice in nursing & healthcare:  A guide to best practice (4th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer

 

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