[The patient and his family]

Abstract

Medical decision-making models focus on doctor-patient relationship. The impact of the family, specifically the involvement of the relatives in the information- and decision-making process have rarely been evaluated yet. Within the project "Patient as partners - cancer patients and their involvement in medical decision making" progressive disease cancer patients, their relatives and doctors as well as Thuringian general practitioners have been interviewed with regard to their attitudes (among others) towards the medical system and information and decision making processes.

Results: From the patient's point of view, the family is highly important in decision-making (very important/important 80.3 %). 73 % of the patients, but only 58 % of the relatives feel very good/good informed about the treatment. With regard to prognosis, 30 % of the patients and 27 % of the relatives feel less/poorly informed. 83.7 % of the relatives believe they cannot influence treatment decisions. According to this, Thuringian general practitioners judge the influence of family members on treatment decisions quite low (very high/high 12.9 %, partly 37.4 %, low/not possible 49.7 %), though the relatives' wish for involvement is seen quite realistic (89 % of the GP's believe that the family wants to be involved).

Conclusion: From the patients point of view, the family has got a high status with regard to medical decision-making. In palliative cancer patients doctors should offer an early and continuous involvement of relatives in information and decision-making processes in order to reduce misjudgements and frustration within the families.