Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Nursing essays on the ethical principles of consent
Nursing essays on the ethical principles of consent
Nursing essays on the ethical principles of consent
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Nursing essays on the ethical principles of consent
Ethical Issues Involved in Obtaining Consent for Treatment
Medical consent is the act, in healthcare, of informing patients of disease processes, its natural history and treatments or observation of such. Consent involves competing values of patient autonomy versus provider paternalism and much of the ethical controversy resides here. Consent is commonly written, but may be oral or implied, and is often supported with decision aids such as written materials, videos, etc.
The ethics of medical consent requires a greater standard than the legal requirement. Consent, as defined by law, must be voluntary, competent, and informed. The ethics of each component may violate the provider's fiduciary duty. Voluntary consent may be fraught with inconsistencies, duress, or perceived duress of the patient. The patient values autonomy but may have concerns for: (a.) continued physician relationships, (b.) family pressures, or (c.) clouded judgments from their diagnoses. Competence may be straight forward, and requires conscious adults without obvious mental deficits. Competence excludes minors, mental illnesses, and undue duress. Informed consent requires both information and adequate delivery.
Expectations by Clinicians for Voluntary, Competent and Informed Consent
Clinicians have a fiduciary duty to provide consent and must be assured that it meets expectations. Voluntary consent must be achieved without any real or perceived duress. It is voluntary when all of the patient’s questions have been answered satisfactorily and they are agreeable. Enhancement of the voluntary element occurs when consent is obtained on any day prior to treatment. The dissociation of obtaining consent from the day of treatment gives reasonable pe...
... middle of paper ...
...tent (i.e. conscious and conversant), and informed (quantitative versus qualitative). As a patient, my inclusions for consent are the same: informed knowledge with permission. The natural history of the disease and the Standard of Care for treatment are required. Information about choices which deviate from the Standard of Care should be included. Quantitative imperative is unnecessary depending on the educational level of the patient. Its disclosure may potentially harm or cause duress for the patient. For me, as a patient, quantitative imperative would not require inclusion.
Works Cited
[1] Darr, Kurt. Ethics in Health Services Management, 5th ed. Baltimore: Health Professions Press, 2011.
[2] Schwartz, Peter H. Questioning the Quantitative Imperative. Decision Aids, Prevention, and the Ethics of Disclosure. Hastings Center Report. 2011. 41(2): 30-39.
Consent is necessary from everyone, not only those who can verbalise his or her needs. It is important to find out the persons communication needs so that they can be involved in discussions around their needs and preferences. My duty of care is to ensure that choices are given, and that appropriate support is obtained where there is lack of capacity is the decision is complex and the individual cannot consent. This may be from families or next of kin or using advocates to ensure that the client’s best interests are maintained. There may be past events or requests that could indicate the client’s preferences, and these must be considered when choices have to be made by others. Any preferences should be recorded on care plans and shared with relevant others to be able to determine the best interests of the person. Decisions should also be put off until the client is able to make their own choices where possible and not taken on their behalf through assuming we know
Wilson , James G. S., “Rights”, Principles of Health Care Ethics, Second Edition, eds. R.E. Ashcroft, A. Dawson, H. Draper and J.R. McMillan. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 2007. pp. 239.
Westrick, S. (2013). Legal and Ethical Issues in Healthcare. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
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 consent, the patient must be aware and should be able to give a voluntary consent for the treatment and testing without being coerced, even if coercion is very little. Being coerced into giving consent is not voluntary because others people’s opinions account for part of his decision. Prisoners and the poor population are two areas where coercion is found the most when giving consent. Terminally ill patients also give consent in hope of recovering from their illness. Although the possibilities are slim of having a successful recovery, they proceed with the research with the expectation of having a positive outcome. As stated by Raab, “informed consent process flows naturally from the ‘partnership’ between physician and patient” (Raab). Despite the fact that informed consent is supposed to educate the patients, it is now more of an avoidance of liability for physicians (Raab). Although the physician provides adequate information to his patient, how can he ensure that his patient properly ...
Personal autonomy refers to the capacity to think, decide and act on one's own free initiative (Patient confidentiality & divulging patient information to third parties, 1996). For a patient’s choice to be an autonomous choice, the patient must make his choice voluntarily (free of controlling constraints), his choice must be adequately informed, and the patient must have decision-making capacity (he must be competent) (Paola, 2010), therefore Physicians and family members should help the patient come to his own decision by providing full information; they should also uphold a competent, adult patient's decision, even if it appears medically wrong (Patient confidentiality & divulging patient information to third parties, 1996).
For legally competent adult patients, regarding medical care per se - according to Anglo-American law -- every competent adult has the freedom to seek or not to seek medical care and to refuse to consent to any specific treatment proposed, under the common law right of bodily integrity and intangibility:
Autonomy is a concept found in moral, political, and bioethical reasoning. Inside these connections, it is the limit of a sound individual to make an educated, unpressured decision. Patient autonomy can conflict with clinician autonomy and, in such a clash of values, it is not obvious which should prevail. (Lantos, Matlock & Wendler, 2011). In order to gain informed consent, a patient
Confidentiality will always be an important component in medical discussions, but confidentiality on the other hand is not a right and has to be stable against counter claims (Chalmers, 2003). Some arguments and facts that were used in the article were how are health care providers supposed to be able to correct the stability? Should overt content always be required from clients for any use of their health care information separately from the direct clinical care? The proof suggests that where the informed consent is needed completeness of health information hurts and unfinished health ...
Gedge, E., & Waluchow, W. (2012). Readings in health care ethics (2nd ed.). Toronto, Ontario: Broadview Press.
Tarzian, A. J., & Force, A. C. C. U. T. (2013). Health care ethics consultation: An update on core competencies and emerging standards from the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities’ Core Competencies Update Task Force. The American Journal of Bioethics, 13(2),
Informed consent is a very serious decision a patient has to make when it comes to their health and consenting to procedures that are believed to cure or treat their current health status. It is important to address the effectiveness of the role a physician play in the informed consent process assuring that the patient has given truly informed consent and what safeguards can be put in place to assure the patient is exercising informed consent. Informed consent is based on the fact that the person consenting is a rational individual that is aware of the action to which he/she is consenting. Allen and McNamara (2011) notes that "On the standard understanding, the important elements of informed consent are the provision of information, the voluntariness of the choice and the competence of the chooser to make the choice— so the potential research participant should be provided with information relevant to the decision to participate, they should be able to choose freely about their participation and they should be competent to decide.
Garrett, T. M., Baillie, H. W., & Garrett, R. M. (2010). Health care ethics: Principles and problems (5thed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Health care providers are faced with bioethical issues every day when caring for a wide variety of patients. Bioethical principles are outlined in order to help these professionals provide the best possible care for their clients. The first principle focuses on the autonomy of individuals. This is the foundation of “informed consent” that is required before performing any medical care on a patient. The patient must completely understand the benefits and risks associated with any medical acts and make their own decision. The second principle states that no intentional harm or injury to the patient can result from the medical decision. This principle of nonmaleficence helps set standards of care to prevent wrongdoing. Beneficence is the third bioethical principle that states that it is the responsibility of the health care provider to benefit the patient. The fourth bioethical principle refers to justice and that each patient is treated with fairness. Every patient is entitled to impartial medical care to ensure the appropriate distribution of goods and services (McCormick, 2013). These bioethical principles help guide health care professionals when making difficult decisions related to controversial topics and practices.
The article titled “Contemporary Ethical Analyses: A Shortfall in Scientific Knowledge” describes the ethics through the public’s eye. One of the major ethical issues brought up is informed consent.
Medical ethics refers to the relationship between health professionals and patients. The trust of patients in physicians has been vanishing. Today a lot of health care providers primary concerns seem to be in profit rather than in providing the proper healthcare to the public. Medical ethics consist of several different principles. Nonmaleficence, beneficence, justice, and autonomy are just a few of the many principals. Nonmaleficence enacts that a health care providers, can never use treatment to injure or wrong their patients. Beneficence claims that health care providers are obligated to help others further their interest. Justice requires health providers treat every patient as equal and provide equal treatment for everyone with the same