/sci/ - Science & Math

>>15078919
While they are supposed to explain procedures to you before you get them, the vast majority of the time people in process-driven environments like hospitals just assume every prior step in the process has been executed correctly.
Some nurse is told to give you drugs. She walks into the room and hands you the drugs and tells you to take them. She doesn't ask if you know what the drugs are. She doesn't ask if you've consented to the procedure. She's been told drugs aren't prescribed unless the patient has informed consent, so she assumes the patient has been informed and has consented.

I went to an urgent care last year because I had some kind of white spot on my tonsil. I could physically see the white spots using a tongue depressor and a phone camera, although I couldn't get a good picture. I walk into an urgent care and tell them my symptoms and what I saw. They ask me if I want a COVID test, I say no. They ask if I want a strep test. I say sure.
Nevertheless, when I'm seen by a nurse she gives me a strep test, and both a shallow and nasopharyngeal COVID test. I was so surprised that I didn't even interrupt her. In reality, I didn't consent to either COVID test and that was actually a violation of informed consent, but that's how these places work, and at the end of the day it's my fault for not stopping her before each procedure and asking what she's doing. Retarded part is that the PA didn't even find the spot, and prescribed me Prednisone, a wild mis-prescription (I don't go to that urgent care anymore, obviously).

The responsibility of your medical provider is to keep you informed and ensure you agree to all procedures ahead of time, but reality is not House MD. Your nurses are sometimes tired and sometimes stupid. Your doctors are sometimes lazy and sometimes egotistical. You need to protect yourself by ensuring no one is doing anything to you that you didn't consent to have done.