Consent

Heard an interesting comment today while on my first day in Anesthesia rotation. A few residents were just sitting around chatting, and got to discussing Spanish-speaking patients. In general, they tended to prefer them despite the language barrier because the residents felt that the Spanish-speaking patients were usually more relaxed and more compliant compared to American patients whom they felt were extremely anxious, in general. That got me thinking - is it that the Spanish-speaking patients are simply more trusting of physicians in general, or is it that they are simply more relaxed? I think it might be cultural - perhaps in European culture the notion that the physician knows best still remains. Here, in the United States, expectations have become so high that short of a perfect outcome, patients demand some sort of retribution/compensation, usually through a legal recourse. Perhaps the American patients are more knowledgeable, more read-up via the Internet, but then many will probably also scare themselves into imagining the worst possible diagnoses much as medical students often do. What's better - a well informed albeit potentially arrogant/litigious/anxiety-prone patient or a relaxed, compliant yet naive/ignorant patient?