Informed Consent Case Study

With the development of the nurses understanding, the nurse will be able to clearly communication across relevant information. This will promote patient participation (Tobiano, Marshall, Bucknall, & Chaboyer, 2016) and empower the patients voice by actively involving them in the decision-making process. Per the Health and Disability Act (1994, as cited in Medical Council of New Zealand, n.d) patients should have their treatment explained to them, including the benefits, risks, alternatives and costs; as well as having the option to change their mind at any time. This all contributes to the development of a partnership and ensures that the patient will cooperate with tasks at hand. However, the lack of communication with the patient regarding their treatment can cause severe anxiety and ultimately a breakdown in the trust between the patient and the nurse. The successful implementation of this in practice can be seen in an observational study conducted by Tobiano et al. (2016).

Patients have the right to self-determination and individuals should have control over their own lives. With respect for human autonomy comes respect for patient rights. Apart of the nurses job is to promote, advocate and protect the rights, health, and safety of our patients. Patients have the right to determine their health needs, make informed decisions, and the right to information regarding their treatment and also the refusal of treatment. Nurses are obligated to know the rights of a patient and to make sure the patient understands their treatment plan. Supporting patient autonomy includes making decisions in the best interest of the patient, considering their values and recognizing differences between cultures. In the treatment

There are a number of legal and ethical duties expected of nurses. Most of these involve care for patient’s autonomy and confidentiality despite the medical care. Failure to act regarding these can give rise to liability. One aspect of Patient’s autonomy involves giving or withholding his consent about treatment. This paper takes into account ‘consent’ as the aspect of law regarding nursing.

Informed consent is the basis for all legal and moral aspects of a patient’s autonomy. Implied consent is when you and your physician interact in which the consent is assumed, such as in a physical exam by your doctor. Written consent is a more extensive form in which it mostly applies when there is testing or experiments involved over a period of time. The long process is making sure the patient properly understands the risk and benefits that could possible happen during and after the treatment. As a physician, he must respect the patient’s autonomy. For a patient to be an autonomous agent, he must have legitimate moral values. The patient has all the rights to his medical health and conditions that arise. When considering informed

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) states that all nurses must support a patients’ rights to be involved in decisions about their own care, it is extremely important to give sufficient information to

Sule stated that, “The Patient Bill of Right adopted by American Hospitals Association states that ‘a patient possesses the right to be informed of the medical consequences of his or her actions and decisions and refuse treatment to the extent permitted by the law’. However, this is true only if the patient is in position to understand the consequences of his treatment. Incompetent, senile patients neither have the correct judgment regarding which treatment is appropriate for them, nor are they in a state of understanding the implications of their treatment. In such case, their willingness to grant or deny consent cannot dictate the course of treatment.” Problem with the Act is being able to find that the patient component enough to make such a call. Another issue that Sule stated was on confidentiality and autonomy. According to Sule, “This is another ethical issue erupting from the conflict of patient's rights and professional ethics in nursing job and profession. The Patient Bill of Right makes it mandatory for the medical practitioners to reveal the form and extent of the ailment along with the course of treatment to be undertaken by the practitioners. However, this law of autonomy clashes with the nursing ethic that the professional should maintain high degree of confidentiality regarding the patient's health and treatment.” This can cause conflicting issues in the NP’s

Dimond (2009) and NHS choices (2016) explained consent as the process involving a person giving their approval to accept or refuse a treatment or interventions, after receiving detailed information from a health care professional about the risk or benefits of the procedure. In order for consent to be deemed valid, it needs to be given voluntarily without any influence or pressure from either a family member or clinician. In addition, the capacity of the person is important when giving consent and the ability to process the given information and make a decision. Tingle &Cribb (2014) agree, emphasizing that the autonomy of the person giving

Informed consent according to Howard Brody is overlooked and not integrated into the health care system properly. The patients’ needs and desires are not met due to the lack of respect for patient autonomy and the overall experience is therefore negative. The legal standards that are currently in place do not explicitly state what is expected of them, therefore creating confusion. In order to resolve this issue, Brody proposes a standard that includes the best-operationalized features of other models, one known as the conversation model. This model is very similar, yet has flaws such as extensive time requirements and justification of a conversation as receiving informed consent in respect to the law. He describes that informed consent is when a patient is reasonably informed and capable of participating in the medical decision making process. Reasonably informed can be described by using two

The report highlights 290 recommendations to improve healthcare systems to take a person centred approach. The Francis Report highlights communication and competency as some core skills required in nursing practice, especially during the process of obtaining consent (Health Foundation, 2015). Communication is important as nurses must provide sufficient information to enable patients to make an informed decision. Information provided should enhance patients knowledge to understand what they are approving off. Nurses should listen to patients to understand their needs to formulate decisions on care.

Consent can be quite tricky, a legal minefield for healthcare teams, this is due to the patients who will give or refuse to give private information about themselves who is legally competent but

At a practice level, the importance and guidance of the Code of Conduct, Code of Ethics and NPA are demonstrated on a daily basis with regard to the issues of documentation, informed consent and open disclosure, and confidentiality. With respect to documentation, nurses must be able to document patient assessments and responses in an accurate, comprehensive and confidential manner and record all observations objectively. Informed consent and open disclosure are also major legal issues nurses face daily. It refers to the communication between the patient and health professional that results in the patient's agreement to undergo a specific procedure and requires that the patient has thoroughly understood the procedure, implications and risks prior to giving written consent.

Patients come from different social, religious and educational backgrounds; therefore there is no single method towards obtaining consent. However the basic approach towards obtaining an informed consent defined by GMC includes assessing the patient’s condition, followed by consenting based on the patient’s knowledge and previous experiences. Patient should be allowed to weigh up the proposed investigation or treatment and the burden of any clinical and non-clinical issue relevant to them. The patient has the right to accept or to refuse the investigation or treatment (GMC,

Professional relationships with patients and the developments in standard of care have made law paramount to the study and practice of nursing. Law helps keep up to date nursing practice in every stage of patient care making it important for nurses to understand the ethical and legal implications of law in their nursing profession (Griffith and Tengrah, 2011).

From this, I have realised that the patient have the right to know every details about their illness and it is the nurse responsibility to ensure the patient is well informed about their disease condition and treatment plan. Honesty builds trust, which is essential to the therapeutic relationship between the nurse and the clients. (CNO 2002)

In the recent past, there was a raging debate on the merits of informed consent largely because the arguments advanced in defence of informed consent were largely based on fallible arguments rather than empirical evidence (O’Neill 2003, p. 4). Notably, informed consent encompassed other common facets of human life including marriage, and daily transactions. However, O’Neill (2003, p. 4) argued that informed consent was not legally binding unless all parties were saware of what their commitment entailed and they participated in the process willingly. It was noted that in the recent past the essence of informed consent in the medical practice had increasingly become apparent.