Nursing and Consent

The process of establishing consent will vary according to an individual’s assessed capacity to consent.

Consent is the informed agreement to an action and/or decision. Permission for something to happen or agreement to do something.

The research was conducted to explore the issue, and ethical principles presented. Personal ethical viewpoint was given along with professional examples. The work was actively discussed with classmates and received compliments. In the Case: Lack of Consent and Patient Death physician’s failed to obtain the consent from the patient. The failure resulted in inappropriate procedure, which led to the patient’s death (Pozgar, p. 1243, 2012). The work included my opinion regarding court’s decision, analysis of ethical and legal dilemmas, analysis of failed hospital’s ethical duty to the patient, and personal intake for “What would I do” situation. I chose to present this piece of work as my exemplar as this module incorporated all aspects of the course, and included ethical and legal concepts from contemporary issues in nursing we studied for the duration of the

This paper will critique a qualitative research study published in the Journal of Medical Ethics in 2004, By Dr Helen Aveyard, about how nurses manage patients who refuse nursing care procedures. The article explains how nurses view informed consent as not being essential to nursing care procedures.

In our day today lives we make complex decisions, continually weighing up the risks and benefits of our actions. However in the hospital environment, the Doctor knows best attitude has prevailed for many years, patients deemed unable to be involved in decisions regarding treatment. Development in law relating to consent has been slow, based on paternalistic approach and therapeutic privilege to decide treatment choice for patients. Whilst health care practice moved towards informed consent, the law lagged behind. In 2015 informed consent has finally been recognised in Law. The author will describe the changing attitude in the law of consent from 1950’s to present day and how these changes affected nurses duty to obtain consent from patients

Dimond (2016), notes the right to refuse is a basic principle of law in the UK of which the court of appeal has emphasised that providing the patient has necessary mental capacity they can refuse to give consent for a good, bad or no reason at

Health and social care professionals should always seek valid consent from people with dementia. This should entail informing the person of options, and checking that he or she understands, that there is no coercion and that he or she continues to consent over time. If the person lacks the capacity to make a decision, the provisions of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 must be followed.

It is a basic principle of law in this country that an adult, mentally competent person has the right to refuse treatment. The court of appeal has emphasised that provided the patient has the necessary mental capacity, which is assessed in relation to the decision to be made, then he or she can refuse to give consent for a good reason, a bad reason or no reason at all (Dimond, 2008). However, in this case it is in the best interest of the patient that the MDT administrated medication covertly. The legal issue identified in this case relates to the issue of consent. Within the case study professionalism had to challenged when it came to the capacity of the patient. The MDT had to resolve the legal issues associated with capacity and consent.

Informed Consent allows a doctor to render treatment to a patient. By signing the document states that the patient understands the circumstances and what is required. This paper is to analyze the consent and non-consent, and ethical issues that can become a problem.

Mostly all nursing actions are an invasion of a person’s privacy and giving consent is carried out by going into the hospital or being treated at home. So one can say that consent is based on the principle of respect for a fellow human being.

DEF: represents an ethical parameter of the humans rights for an individual to make an informed decision regarding a specific procedure or a treatment (Buka 2015). Furthermore, the information provided by the health professionals should include all benefits especially the risks and alternatives treatments in order to empowers the individual to be autonomous in the decision making process (Wilhite 2010) and therefore consent is not just a signed document.

The Human Rights Act 1998 upholds the person/patient rights to make decisions on whether to accept or decline treatment ("UKCEN: Ethical Issues - Consent", 2016).

Healthcare provider’s perception and judgment in the patient’s well being as well as taking into account the right of the patient in every action is one of the key elements in nursing practice. International Council of Nurses (ICN), (2006) states “The nurse at all times maintains standards of personal conduct which reflect well on the profession and enhance public confidence” (p. 3). Furthermore, nursing action guided by theory and principles of moral and legal

There are different types of consent that can be gained by individual for a treatment to be carried out, for example, expressed consent can be given either written or in a verbal form (Tidy 2016a). Verbal consent can express through words, for example, agreeing for a blood pressure measurement to be taken (Farlex, 2003). Written consent is a legal documentation through the individual’s signature stating that they comply with treatment. Implied consent is the assumption that the patient concurs with the treatment as they haven’t denied it (NHS Scotland 2016). If a patient is unconscious there is no information or statement nearby to suggesting a decline of a treatment e.g. Religious reasoning for not taking a blood test, health professionals

According to the Oxford Dictionary consent is defined as ‘giving permission for something to happen or agreeing to do something’. They define confidentiality as ‘entrusted with private information and if something is intended to be kept secret or in confidence’ (Soanes and Hawker, 2005). As a healthcare professional consent and confidentiality are in place as protective vices, by gaining consent and keeping a patients confidentiality it protects both the patient and the healthcare professional. There are three types of consent: Verbal consent, consent in writing and implied consent. Depending on the situation each type of consent may not be acceptable. For example if a procedure is putting a patient at risk, is complex or invasive for example an operation, written consent is