Doctor's approach to "informed concent"in anesthesia practice

As a results of the principle of respect for the autonomy of the person and the duty and liability of the physician, both legally and ethically, informing the patients and getting their consent before any medical intervention is an essential terms of today's medicine practice. Today, about the legal requirements of the changing and developing relationship between the patient and the physician and its indispensable element ''informed consent'', especially the anesthesiologists whether they have enough information and how much they should take part in this process is both a curiosity and debate. The study has been planned on the purpose of determining the attitudes of the anesthesiologists on the subject and to revealing what are problems encountered in implementation this process in our country. The aim of the study is to determine the attitudes of the Anesthesiologists against ''The Practice of Getting Informed Consent'' before the interventional procedures in the three major public hospitals in the province of Antalya and to determine what are the problems in the implementation process. The results shows that the most (90%) of the anesthesiologists who are participating in this study don't follow the basic approach and the legal regulations about patient rights and informed consent. The need for a better and more systematic education is clearly seen. Despite all these, physicians were found to be sensitive about protecting the rights of their patients. The rate of those who said ''Informed Consent should be taken before high-risk medical interventions'' was high (96%). The ratio of those who said that ''I could have enough time for a patient in the polyclinic before surgery'' was very low which is not surprisingly. (8%). They said ''the problems experienced in the informed consent process are mostly due to the patients and their relatives''. All these evidences suggest that physicians are sensitive about their professional responsibilities and are open to self-development but do not have enough time for that, also they have deficits in education and problems due to patient-related reasons. Keywords: Informed Consent, Anesthesiologist, Patient Rights.