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eLetters: Which problem, which judgement?
In response to: Problems for clinical judgement: introducing cognitive psychology as one more basic science
Stephen Workman
Email: sworkman@is.dal.ca
Affiliation: Assistant Professor, Dalhousie University
Posted on: February 20, 2001
Examples of clinical judgement range from the monumental (such as whether to discontinue life-support for a patient on dialysis) to the banal (such as whether to discontinue a telephone call when on hold with nephrology.'
The example of a monumental clinical judgement chosen by the authors, whether to discontinue life support, is unclear. If a patient is competent, he or she should make the decision to stop treatment. If the patient is not competent, then family members should decide. Physicians, may of course, need to determine if life support is in fact only prolonging the dying process. I suspect it is this decision that the authors felt requires monumental clinical judgement.
Competing interests: none
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