Zackary Berger gave a seminar discussing patient autonomy in theory and practice. He explained that while autonomy is viewed as important in principle, in reality patients do not always exercise full decision-making control. Berger presented research finding that doctors do not typically elicit patient concerns or collaboratively set visit agendas. For hospitalized patients, communication is often poor with plans changing without patient input. Berger concluded that educating doctors and encouraging relational autonomy could help promote patient participation in their own care.
The five most frequently-occurring and most stressful ethical and patient care issues were protecting patients' rights; autonomy and informed consent to treatment; staffing patterns; advanced care planning; and surrogate decision-making.
Do Not Resuscitate Orders : What They Mean ?SMSRAZA
Most doctors working in Acute areas know when and how to do CPR. However, most get stuck when it comes to ' When not to do CPR' due to cultural, social, ethical and legal issues attached.
The five most frequently-occurring and most stressful ethical and patient care issues were protecting patients' rights; autonomy and informed consent to treatment; staffing patterns; advanced care planning; and surrogate decision-making.
Do Not Resuscitate Orders : What They Mean ?SMSRAZA
Most doctors working in Acute areas know when and how to do CPR. However, most get stuck when it comes to ' When not to do CPR' due to cultural, social, ethical and legal issues attached.
Medical Research: conflicts between autonomy and beneficence/non maleficence, euthanasia, informed consent, confidentiality, criticisms of orthodox medical ethics
MRM301T Research Methodology and Biostatistics: Confidentiality 1 22102021ashish7sattee
Ethicists tend to rely heavily on case studies both in research publications and teaching.
Such cases are most valuable where they draw attention to new or emerging issues in medical ethics, as these can challenge the limits of current ethical practice, preparing undergraduates and practitioners alike for decisions they may have to make in the future
Concepts and principles of bioethics for the students of health professionsK Raman Sethuraman
Students and many educators have difficulty in differentiating among Legal, Ethical and Moral viewpoints. After explaining these terms, the concept of biomedical ethics, a brief history of its origin in the post-War period and the components of ethics are explained. The final part is on Nursing ethics, attributes of an ethical nurse and ethical challenges faced by the nursing profession.
It gives an overview on the concept of paternalism and autonomy and which principle prevails in the current situation. The opinion is the writer personal opinion.
Risky Business: Risk communicat ion in the provider-patient encounterZackary Berger
Communicating risk is part of nearly every patient-provider encounter. I present some evidence-based strategies to improve patients\' and doctors\' risk perception.
How Do You Deal With Uncertainty In Healthcare?Zackary Berger
Uncertainty is a common experience in health care. For an upcoming book and ongoing research project, I want to be in contact with patients, families, and caregivers to find out their strategies for approaching, dealing with, and understanding such uncertainty.
For example, Ms. A. has back pain unaccompanied by underlying serious disease. She has no way of knowing whether it will go away in weeks, months, or not at all. She wants an MRI, which accepted evidence indicates will neither aid in treating her pain nor reassure her.
On the one hand, both she and the healthcare provider would like to do “something” as a sign of care; on the other hand, we want to harm neither Ms. A (with tests/procedures that won't work), nor society (afflicted by a health care system which costs too much, delivers poor care in comparison to other systems, and treats people unequally).
There are many scenarios in which treatment is pursued despite evidence showing it does not work more than placebo. For example, hormone treatment in the patient with loco regional (not metastatic) prostate cancer; repeated CT scans for thyroid nodules without symptoms; treatment of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), mammograms in a patient without significant family history more often than every two years.
How do you as a patient, family member, or caregiver seek the best care in such a situation, where things are uncertain and more tests/procedures might not work? What strategies do you use? What should healthcare providers do? Please be in touch with me to help guide this work. zberger1 at jhmi dot edu
Medical Research: conflicts between autonomy and beneficence/non maleficence, euthanasia, informed consent, confidentiality, criticisms of orthodox medical ethics
MRM301T Research Methodology and Biostatistics: Confidentiality 1 22102021ashish7sattee
Ethicists tend to rely heavily on case studies both in research publications and teaching.
Such cases are most valuable where they draw attention to new or emerging issues in medical ethics, as these can challenge the limits of current ethical practice, preparing undergraduates and practitioners alike for decisions they may have to make in the future
Concepts and principles of bioethics for the students of health professionsK Raman Sethuraman
Students and many educators have difficulty in differentiating among Legal, Ethical and Moral viewpoints. After explaining these terms, the concept of biomedical ethics, a brief history of its origin in the post-War period and the components of ethics are explained. The final part is on Nursing ethics, attributes of an ethical nurse and ethical challenges faced by the nursing profession.
It gives an overview on the concept of paternalism and autonomy and which principle prevails in the current situation. The opinion is the writer personal opinion.
Risky Business: Risk communicat ion in the provider-patient encounterZackary Berger
Communicating risk is part of nearly every patient-provider encounter. I present some evidence-based strategies to improve patients\' and doctors\' risk perception.
How Do You Deal With Uncertainty In Healthcare?Zackary Berger
Uncertainty is a common experience in health care. For an upcoming book and ongoing research project, I want to be in contact with patients, families, and caregivers to find out their strategies for approaching, dealing with, and understanding such uncertainty.
For example, Ms. A. has back pain unaccompanied by underlying serious disease. She has no way of knowing whether it will go away in weeks, months, or not at all. She wants an MRI, which accepted evidence indicates will neither aid in treating her pain nor reassure her.
On the one hand, both she and the healthcare provider would like to do “something” as a sign of care; on the other hand, we want to harm neither Ms. A (with tests/procedures that won't work), nor society (afflicted by a health care system which costs too much, delivers poor care in comparison to other systems, and treats people unequally).
There are many scenarios in which treatment is pursued despite evidence showing it does not work more than placebo. For example, hormone treatment in the patient with loco regional (not metastatic) prostate cancer; repeated CT scans for thyroid nodules without symptoms; treatment of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), mammograms in a patient without significant family history more often than every two years.
How do you as a patient, family member, or caregiver seek the best care in such a situation, where things are uncertain and more tests/procedures might not work? What strategies do you use? What should healthcare providers do? Please be in touch with me to help guide this work. zberger1 at jhmi dot edu
Evidence-Based Practice Guidelines and Shared Decision Making: Conflicting or...Zackary Berger
How can we bridge physician guidelines, based on the best available evidence, and patient preferences? This workshop was given at the Society of General Internal Medicine 2015 Annual Meeting in Toronto, Canada.
Session Coordinator: Zackary Berger, MD, PhD
Additional Faculty: Michael J. Barry, MD, Kathleen Fairfield, MD, Leigh H. Simmons, MD, James Yeh, MD, Daniella A. Zipkin, MD, Dave deBronkart
Uncertainty and cancer care: should primary care providers routinely screen f...Zackary Berger
Spirituality is associated with higher quality of life among cancer patients, and named by such patients among their psychosocial needs. Should primary care providers explicitly screen for and offer spirituality-oriented interventions? A talk given by Zackary Berger, MD, PhD, at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland.
Patient-Centered Communication: A Useful Clinical ReviewZackary Berger
Patient-centered communication is important because of the 5 E's: ethics, emotions, efficiency, effectiveness, and equity. This talk was originally given October 1, 2014, at the Baltimore City Medical Society.
Promoting the Patient's Capacity to Suffer: A Revision of Contemporary Notion...James Tobin, Ph.D.
In this presentation, Dr. Tobin argues that the era of evidence-based treatment has inadvertently placed too much pressure and responsibility on the part of the clinician to "heal" the patient. Symptom reduction and characterologoical transformation are perspectives on therapeutic transformation that oversimplify the clinical situation. According to Dr. Tobin, a principle focus of psychodynamic treatment is increasing the patient's capacity to contact, tolerate, and represent his or her contributions to experience; learning by suffering denotes a psychological competency in which denial, minimization, and other defensive modes of distortion are replaced by more accurate appraisals of reality.
April 18, 2018
Decision aids can be highly-effective tools to promote shared decision making and support patients in becoming engaged participants in their healthcare. Join us for the first-ever convening with leaders behind a Washington experiment in certifying decision aids, as state officials, health systems, and on-the-ground implementation experts share lessons learned and discuss policy recommendations for national or statewide approaches to decision aid certification.
For more information, visit our website at: http://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/events/details/decision-aids-for-patients-with-serious-illness
Organizational Contex and Patient Safety: Is there a Role for Mindfulness?Heather Gilmartin
Presentation to review and define the concept of organizational context, present research on context and the relationship to healthcare associated infections, review the practice of mindfulness, discuss a role of mindfulness in patient safety.
The Anatomy of Discovery in Psychotherapy: "Something So Familiar, It is Stra...James Tobin, Ph.D.
In this talk, presented at the Western Psychological Association Annual Convention in April, 2014, Dr. Tobin cautions that the current environment of empirically-based treatment may foreclose on the discovery process psychotherapy affords. According to Dr. Tobin, psychotherapy is most successful when the patient's self-observing capacities are supported by the therapist. If the therapist can avoid narcissistic ambitions and instrumental fictions employed to understand the patient prematurely, the conditions may allow for the patient to connect with dissociated memories, cognitions, and affects. Dr. Tobin utilizes movie clips from the feature films "Ordinary People" and "9 1/2 Weeks" to illustrate his perspective.
The document is a description of the adaptation of Rizzi-Salvatori's "difficulty paper" for use in small groups after students viewed each others videotaped interactions with standardized patients in a required ethics course in a Doctor of Pharmacy program.
This the introductory presentation on the theory that underpins the consultation between doctor and patient. I would value any comments on these presentations: my hope is that your interest will lead to deeper insight into the process of consulting and to a sense of driving the quality of the interaction forward for the benefit of all parties.
1. Zackary Berger, MD, PhD
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Berman Institute Seminar Series
February 27, 2012
2. Autonomy: uncontroversial in
principle
Standard view (Schneider):
“The physician’s role is to use training etc. to provide
patient with facts…and alternative treatments”
“The patient’s role is to provide the values to evaluate
alternatives and select the one that is best”
Encouraging Patient Autonomy From Theory to
Practice: Z. Berger, Berman Seminar, 2/27/2012
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3. …so we can remove impediments
to autonomy and let patients
practice it
“[Once] impediments [to autonomy] are gone, [it is
assumed] people will naturally gather evidence about
the risk and benefits of each medical choice, apply
their values to that evidence, and reach a considered
decision” (Schneider)
Encouraging Patient Autonomy From Theory to
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5. How is autonomy exercised in
practice?
“I don’t know anything, how am I supposed to decide?”
“Mandatory autonomy”
We should expect that all patients exercise autonomy
Prophylactic argument
Therapeutic argument
False-consciousness argument
Moral argument (from authenticity)
Not all patients want all autonomy all the time
Various principles must be balanced
“Encouraged autonomy”
Assessing patients’ readiness towards various domains of
autonomy, and encouraging the exercise of preferences
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6. Broader definitions of autonomy
Decisional autonomy
Taking part in medical decision-making
The autonomy to choose autonomy (second-order
autonomy; G. Dworkin)
Relational autonomy
Autonomy is never exercised in isolation
Social support and recognition of the person's status
affect her capacities for self-trust, self-esteem, and self-
respect
…which in turn affect her ability to exercise autonomy
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7. Patients are various
Actual situations can force one to reconsider the
meaning or content of a concept
The thick description of a situation can inform and
modify ethical rules
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8. Encouraging autonomy in clinic and
in the hospital
Encouraging Patient Autonomy From Theory to
Practice: Z. Berger, Berman Seminar, 2/27/2012
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9. One aspect of autonomy in the
clinic: setting the agenda
Encouraging Patient Autonomy From Theory to
Practice: Z. Berger, Berman Seminar, 2/27/2012
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10. Who controls the conversations?
Encouraging Patient Autonomy From Theory to
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12. What is “supposed to” happen?
Allow patient to tell story
Don’t interrupt
Probe to exhaustion – “Is there anything else?”
Set explicit agenda
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Practice: Z. Berger, Berman Seminar, 2/27/2012
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13. How do physicians elicit patient
concerns and set an agenda for the
clinic visit?
Encouraging Patient Autonomy From Theory to
Practice: Z. Berger, Berman Seminar, 2/27/2012
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14. Study Design, Population, and Setting
Study Design
• Quantitative and qualitative analyses of data from the
Enhancing Communication and HIV Outcomes
(ECHO) Study
Study Population
• 45 HIV providers and 423 patients
Setting
• 4 HIV specialty care sites in Baltimore, Detroit, New
York, Portland
Encouraging Patient Autonomy From Theory to
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15. Analysis
Developed themes related to
how the visit is opened
whether and how providers elicit patient concerns
whether and how an agenda is set for the visit
For 3 of 4 sites, coded a random selection of 2
encounters per provider (66 encounters total)
At 4th site (Detroit) a nurse started each visit, thus not
relevant to our aims
Encouraging Patient Autonomy From Theory to
Practice: Z. Berger, Berman Seminar, 2/27/2012
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16. Opening of the Visit
Type of Opening Frequency Example
Total N=66
General Open Question 41 “How are you”
Leading Question 7 “Everything okay?”
Solicitation of 1 “Tell me, is there anything that you
concerns/priorities wanted to discuss today, in
particular?”
Atypical (no opening 17 --
question)
Encouraging Patient Autonomy From Theory to
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17. Patient Response
Type of Response Frequency Example
Total N=49
General 30 “Fine”
Specific Concern 14 “My legs are hurting me”
Sequence interrupted (no 5 --
response)
Encouraging Patient Autonomy From Theory to
Practice: Z. Berger, Berman Seminar, 2/27/2012
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18. Further Solicitation of Concerns
Type of Response Frequency Example
Total N=44
Probing to exhaustion 12 “Is there anything else?”
No further probing 32 --
Encouraging Patient Autonomy From Theory to
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19. Agenda Statements
Type of Agenda Frequency Example
Statement Total N=66
None 40 ---
Physician-directed 20 D: “You’re here because we wanted to
jump on your blood pressure”
Patient-directed 3 P: “So you want to do the blood work
for my CD4 count and viral load. Can
you check me for, um, is there blood
work for diabetes?”).
Collaborative 3 D: “Okay. Anything else goin’ on?”
P: “Uh, not really. I think I’m so
centered on the pain thing that I,
that’s my focal point now”
D: “Well let’s make a priority”
Encouraging Patient Autonomy From Theory to
Practice: Z. Berger, Berman Seminar, 2/27/2012
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20. Generic opening questions don’t
solicit concerns
Frequently used by providers
Not effective in eliciting concerns
Physicians do not typically continue to probe further
Patients’ response
suggest that they function as a social exchange rather
than genuine exploration of patient priorities
Encouraging Patient Autonomy From Theory to
Practice: Z. Berger, Berman Seminar, 2/27/2012
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21. When the doctor asks “How are
you?”
“When the doctor asks, ‘How are you?’ and you say,
‘Fine,’ the doctor thinks he has gathered clinical facts,
while you think you have been polite.” Mother of a
Child with Cancer (quoted in Lynn J and Harrold J,
Handbook for Mortals: Guidance for People Facing
Serious Illness)
Encouraging Patient Autonomy From Theory to
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22. Agendas are not often explicitly
stated
When an agenda is stated, it tends to center on
physicians’ priorities
Negotiation of the visit agenda between patient and
provider is rare
Encouraging Patient Autonomy From Theory to
Practice: Z. Berger, Berman Seminar, 2/27/2012
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23. Ways to encourage autonomy in
clinic
Give patients the explicit opportunity to state their
priorities
Discuss (negotiate) with them the agenda for the visit
Encouraging Patient Autonomy From Theory to
Practice: Z. Berger, Berman Seminar, 2/27/2012
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24. Setting agenda: recommendations
Needed: Interventions to educate physicians and
patients about how to most effectively discuss/express
concerns and set an explicit visit agenda
Physicians ought to be aware that a question such as
‘How are you?” is not always interpreted by the patient
as an opportunity to express their concerns
Patients should be empowered to express their concerns
and negotiate the agenda
Encouraging Patient Autonomy From Theory to
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25. Autonomy in the hospital:
understanding communication
Encouraging Patient Autonomy From Theory to
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27. Autonomy in the hospital:
preliminary work
11% of our sample (5 of 46) could not state their
physicians’ reason for admission
Coronary artery disease (n=1), hypertension (n=2),
sigmoid mass (n=1), and stage IV cholangiocarcinoma
(n=1).
Discordance among patient- and physician-stated
reason for admission was common (37%)
E.g. patient: “Can’t speak”; chart: “Atrial tachycardia”
Encouraging Patient Autonomy From Theory to
Practice: Z. Berger, Berman Seminar, 2/27/2012
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28. Patient experience in the hospital:
a study in progress
N=20 patients admitted to the hospitalist service at JHH
Mixed methods study
combination of narrative and conversation analysis (qualitative)
existing communication coding systems (quantitative)
Aims
Characterize communication between physicians and hospital
patients
Determine the exercise of and influences on inpatient autonomy as
determined by their participation in decision-making,
specify the nature of relationships between inpatients and their
physicians
identify opportunities for greater exercise of patient autonomy
through enhanced communication and relationships.
Encouraging Patient Autonomy From Theory to
Practice: Z. Berger, Berman Seminar, 2/27/2012
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29. Transcript excerpt 1: Patient’s role
in the plan of care
Research Assistant: And is there anything you think should be done that’s
different from what the doctor said or do you pretty much agree?
Patient: I agree, it’s a shock to me. I didn’t know this was going on but, yes
they need to explain more to patients, that’s anywhere, because I was really
misled from a couple, from one, that’s why I went to different hospitals,
because it seems like they couldn’t tell me what was going on with me, they was
telling me everything but what was going on and, I don’t know.
Research Assistant: Ok, and what about here, since you got here…and
through the emergency room and everything?
Patient: I couldn’t believe they didn’t have pencils for me to write numbers
down. She told me they had to bring their own pencils. And there was only 1
doctor I got into with since I’ve been here and that was a woman. And I told
her she was very cold-hearted, evidently she must not be a mother, or a
grandmother or a child of God because to treat somebody like that that’s
sick, she didn’t know me from Adam and Eve and she just kept telling me
what she had to do by the rules and I was telling her what I’m
experiencing, what I’m feeling and I’m 49 years old.
Encouraging Patient Autonomy From Theory to 29
Practice: Z. Berger, Berman Seminar, 2/27/2012
30. Transcript excerpt 2: Patient’s role
in the plan of care
Research Assistant: Have there been any changes since we
last spoke about the plan for your care when you’re here.
Patient: Yea. Yesterday they told me I was supposed to get an
MRCP, today they’re telling me they want to give me a CAT
scan. And then a woman doctor came in this morning with
another man and said ‘ok, you’re going to be drinking a
barium solution’ which is what I’ve done in the past.
Third Party (Mom): With the CAT.
Patient: Yes. And then I wake up and everyone in the
world is here, and the doctors say ‘no you’re not going
to drink anything you’re just going to get an
injection.’…I have no idea what they’re talking about.
Encouraging Patient Autonomy From Theory to
Practice: Z. Berger, Berman Seminar, 2/27/2012
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31. Transcript excerpt 3: Patient views
of autonomy
Research Assistant: And how do you feel specifically
today about how people, how the doctors are involving you
in decisions?
Patient: Um, I feel like I’m not really involved at all,
unless I say I just want to talk to my specialist and
then everything gets put on pause.
Research Assistant: And do you wish you were a bit more
involved?
Patient: Yea. I mean I wish involved with communication.
Maybe you should start writing stuff down mom. You
know, somebody should start writing stuff down, what they
say.
Encouraging Patient Autonomy From Theory to
Practice: Z. Berger, Berman Seminar, 2/27/2012
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32. Conclusion: Encouraging the
exercise of autonomy
Educating housestaff/attendings to recognize
opportunities for empathy (encouraging relational
autonomy)
Creating opportunities for patients to discuss their
second-order preferences
Recognize the variety of patients’ approaches to
decisional autonomy
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33. Acknowledgments
Funders
Osler Center for Clinical Excellence at Johns Hopkins
Greenwall Foundation
Study team
Mary Catherine Beach
Dan Brotman
Heather Dark
Amanda Bertram
Maggie Neely
Physicians, patients, nurses on the hospitalist service
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Practice: Z. Berger, Berman Seminar, 2/27/2012
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Editor's Notes
Prophylactic argument, therapeutic argument, false consciousness argument, moral argument (authenticity)