Informed consent

What do I do?

So you can have informed consent.

That's what we want to do, 'cause there's actually very little informed consent on these pharmaceutical drugs.

The side effects are not discussed.

Uh, the long-term, the potential nutrient deficiencies are not discussed.

And that risk, I don't believe, has been quantified yet or really discussed in official rooms that often.

But when we're talking about the masses, the folks who haven't had exposure to contrast therapy prior to their first instance at a bath, A lot of the informed consent and the risk mitigation doesn't live in your waiver.

A lot of that lives in the extra step of the intake.

And we can get into that if you like.

because we are aware,

we need to take that awareness one step further and say, hey, I'm aware that most of my people are not actually reading this waiver.

Maybe I need to, for the purposes of fully informed consent, go ahead and throughout the intake kind of touch on some bullet points that all patients should be aware, some contraindications, some kind of pointing out the obvious risks.

If you have a kind of a premises liability issue that isn't immediately apparent, make sure you let them know, look, there's an interesting little step coming out of the sauna.

This is an organization that came across my desk, I think like two-ish years ago, and I think the way I heard about them originally was maybe from Elise Rush, the co-author of Intuitive Eating.

But then they also put out this amazing informed consent handout on GLP-1s, which circulated widely.

And that was, you know, something that made me really like look into the organization further.

And today we have someone whose position with Medical Students for Size and Inclusivity is co-lead of advocacy.

I will read you Jackie's bio and we will get right into this amazing conversation.

Jackie Liu is a third-year medical student in Harvard Medical School and co-lead of advocacy for medical students for size inclusivity.

In their role, Jackie helps lead the advocacy team to champion size-inclusive medicine through informed consent guides, policy initiatives, and more.

Outside of MSSI, Jackie also has interests in LGBTQ plus health, health policy at large, and medical education.

yeah yeah and i you know you mentioned earlier in the call about um you know the the vaccines and the regulations and all that and i i I got to the point where, cause I know that's a conflict, you know, for a lot of vets, like, well, what do I do like about rabies? And, and I, I felt for a number of years now that my job as a veterinarian is to inform the client, not to enforce any sort of protocol.

So let them know that there are potential risks for the informed consent, which is really how we are supposed to be practicing.

I think most veterinary codes have some element of, most state codes have some element of informed consent written into them.

We're supposed to be explaining to people, these are the risks if you give these vaccines.

Now, if you don't do a rabies shot and your dog goes out and bites somebody, there's going to be consequences there too.

It's only gotten bigger.

And then there is the vaccine conversation.

I appreciated Dr. Judy's honesty about where she's landed, informed consent.

So you guys are anti numbers, your quality care.

So, and I appreciate that because I think everyone should have informed consent and, And it's dying because, you know, if you don't do as I say, you know, get out of here or, you know, it's a system.

So seeing you guys at work, you know, has inspired me.

Watching it, it's just has become part of me.

Whereas it's not even charted in the form of a conversation.

It's so charted in the way of like, I need to cover my behind right now because something bad is going to happen.

So talk to me a little bit about this word that you used about informed consent.

um yeah i mean word yes it is and i what you just said i don't think has changed much even today you know even western medicine doctors if you use the word homeopathy it's like a joke you know like and i and i was there i know i graduated you know westernized you know and and you know going through the experience you know i did a lot of stuff early in bakersfield you probably didn't know that and Bakersfield is a area where you have heavy metals from the oil fields and you have mycotoxins everywhere and you have the pesticides and herbicides because of the farming and stuff like that.

So that's the family part, faith, family, freedom, of course, and especially medical freedom.

informed consent.

You've heard me talk a lot about vaccinations and I'm pretty passionate.

I know I'm labeled as an anti-vaxxer, whatever, that's fine.

Wednesday, Wellness Wednesday.

Thursday, usually about some sort of supplement or product.

And then Friday is Informed Consent Friday.

Informed Consent.

From a criminal point of view, it would be criminal negligence, but gross negligence, they knew that they should have participated in a certain methodology or process to ensure that that there was a proper safety profile, and or they did not disclose certain information.

So this could be also a violation of informed consent.

That also goes against the Nuremberg Code.

So if you go back to World War II, you had the Nuremberg Trials.

So we created an international code.

This also ties to the Geneva Conventions.

But number one on the code is informed consent.

You have to provide patients with information The pros, the cons, far-fetched information, all the clinical studies, you can't omit any type of information, and they also have to receive a choice because they have bodily autonomy.

and isn't able to speak for themselves, to keep the relationship collaborative whenever possible, and to become firmer when collaboration isn't working.

Also, the role of the advocate or support person is to keep informed consent intact.

Informed consent means that you as the person giving birth understand the risks benefits and alternatives to all of the options available, and you know that you can say no.

So there are two pieces to this.

You understand risks, benefits and alternatives, and you understand that you can say no.

And the mom maybe says, oh, I don't really want a cervical exam.

And the nurse is like, well, have to do that you know and it's kind of confusing for the nurse like this is what we do and so in an individualized model we would ask the mom and the mother would say no and that would be more honored but it may be that in the obstetric model or the mixed model of care with midwives in the hospital because we're following those policies algorithms and routines it may feel harder for the mom to remember that they have the right to say no because they aren't being supported in saying no and they aren't being reminded that they have that right.

So going back to advocacy, your partner or support person can support informed consent in being intact by reminding the mom that they have the right to say no. Let's go over a few examples of this.