Informed consent.

Abstract

Information to make patients fully aware of all the details of treatments is an important part of the medical practice before obtaining patient's signature in the consent form. Explanation may be detailed enough to make patients understand the process of treatment. However, sometime it may not be inclusive enough to cover all major statements that give pros and cons of the treatment. Perhaps detailed explanation may reveal too much information that may discourage patients to receive treatments and cause fear, anxiety, and hopelessness. If health care personnels do not mention all the risks involved in medical treatments, they may be subjected to an accusation of concealing the truth that should be made known to patients. This is one of many ways of looking at the problems. There is no easy answer to the problem of what 'appropriate' explanation should be. Most of our patients are from all walks of life which are not medical profession, and they do not have knowledge to understand technical terms. How should we approach patients in order to be safe from an accusation of that we are not over supporting, not giving the patients false hope? Therefore, we would like to present a guideline for informing and explaining to the patients under the following headings (15): 1. Diseases or major symptoms which are diagnosed. 2. The necessity to receive treatments for the benefits of patients or fetus. 3. If possible, determine the duration of treatments. 4. Methods of treatment, evaluation, and schedule for next appointment. 5. Inform about necessary investigations. 6. Inform about complications of risks, and cost of investigations 7. Usefulness and results of investigations. 8. If options of treatments are available, they should be explained in details, the pros and cons, the risks, and the costs, etc. 9. Maintaining medical confidentiality and the use of patient chart by medical personnel and other related health care providers, for instance, hospital staffs from all levels, medical students, technical medical students, and social workers, etc.