Futile Medicine

Since the early 1980's, our health care options have been influenced less and loss by medical professionals with years of training and ethics, and more and more by accountants and bankers, who usually have very little medical expertise. This new breed of decision-maker is ultimately responsible not to you, but to CEO's and stockholders. Their bottom, line is the bottom line-making a profit. Patients and their families have followed physicians' advice without question for decades, even centuries. Today, however, physicians are very often too busy, sometimes ill-informed, occasionally overconfident, or once in a while scared to tell patients everything they need to know to make fully informed health care decisions. When it comes to health care, what you don't know has the potential to hurt You. Professional nurses and nurse practitioners are often trained how to educate patients and their families about health-care alternatives. Many nurses are not only trained to discuss options, but by their nature and nurture are prepared to discuss options for pain management, treatment-outcomes, patients' response to treatment, family situations, personal wishes, and families' finances. This knowledge can make the difference between living and existing. If your physician chooses to not fully inform you of your options, even though he or she should, very often your well-trained nurse can.