Cognitive Dissonance and the Care of Patients with Disorders of Consciousness

Although there is a substantial and growing scholarship on disorders of consciousness – conditions spanning coma, brain death, the vegetative state, and the minimally conscious state – when these cases occur in clinical practice, the degree of clinician ignorance can make it seem as if these scenarios were occurring for the very first time (Giacino et al., 2014). Care can be marked by improvisation and ignorance to the detriment of patients and families as well as to staff whose resilience can be tested by the challenges posed by severe brain injury.