Medical attitude and vulnerable patient’s autonomy

Abstract

This article presents the results of a research done involving samples of 42 doctors from an ophthalmology´s service of a tertiary Hospital in Portugal. An inquiry with ten questions was
applied, in order to evaluate three groups of doctors with different ages and pedagogical background, regarding the autonomy of the patient with glaucoma. The informatization
was analyzed indicating the descriptive correlation, using the test of Pearson χ2. The results show three different medical attitudes, with different statistical meaning (value of p<0,05),
allowing to consider the existence of three doctor’s patterns, regarding their age group. The formalization of medical practices at younger age (defensive medicine) characterized the first Group. The respect for the patient is a characteristic of the second Group. Paternalist medicine remains evident in the third Group, where the elucidation depends of the doctor’s education and character. It conclude that the attitude of the doctors is influenced by the time they started and developed their medical activity, the predominant medical’s
culture and the bioethics’ information.