Informed consent is an important aspect of the nursing practice. It ensures that patients have the autonomy of the healthcare services that healthcare providers give them. Through the practice, patients become aware of the procedures and treatment that they undergo. Secondly, informed consent allows patients to make decisions on the healthcare services that they receive. While many people may merely round it off to signing consent forms, patients need to understand the medical processes. They must be aware of the risks, benefits, and alternatives to medical procedures. The need to obtain informed patients is due to the risks involved in surgical operations. They could result in death, health complications, pain, and loss of organs.
The necessity of adhering to the issue of informed consent is consistent with ethical values in medical practice. It is the responsibility of nurses to ensure that patient receives the information about surgical treatment. Informed consent seeks to get patient approval of the patient before engaging in surgical procedures (Akyü, Bulut, & Karadağ, 2019). Nurses have the responsibility to inform patients and communicate effectively about the surgical processes; they then seek informed consent to provide an opportunity to the patients to make decisions. Nurses should also play the role of defending patients to take part in making decisions about surgical procedures. Informed consent seeks to allow patients to accept or decline surgical processes recommended for them.
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The study described in the article seeks to find out nurse knowledge and practices with regards to their role in the use of informed consent. The study used adult surgical clinical settings to investigate the opinions of nurses on the concept of informed consent (Akyü, Bulut, & Karadağ, 2019). The study sought to assess two main issues. The first issue is the knowledge of nurses with regards to the responsibility of using informed consent. The second issue is to assess how nurses in adult surgical clinic settings practice with the help of informed consent.
The study that was based in Ankara/Turkey involved 92 nurses. Participants were nurses who had worked for not less than 2 months in inpatient surgical clinics. A nurse data collection form was used as the data collection method. In developing a relevant nurse data collection form, the study consulted the Nursing Department. The form had consisted of 3 sections. The first section assessed the education and training of nurses with regards to the use of informed consent (Akyü, Bulut, & Karadağ, 2019). The second section, which consisted of 21 open-ended questions, assessed the roles and responsibilities of nurses with regards to the use of informed consent. The third section assessed the awareness of nurses in the responsibility to inform patients about informed consent. Data analysis was carried out using SPSS version 12.0. Ethical concerns involved informing the nurse participants of the purpose, contents, methods, scope, and duration of the research. The study also upheld the confidentiality of participants. The study also sought approval from the Baskent University Medical and Health Sciences Research Council.
The study established that only 39.1% of the participants received training on informed consent. 48.9 were not aware of the directive on patient rights. The study found that 41.3% of the nurses believed that informed consent is necessary because it is the right of the patient (Akyü, Bulut, & Karadağ, 2019). 21.7% believed in the informed consent but attached it to the legal requirement of clinical procedures. While 25% confirmed that nurses had no role to play in using the informed consent, 35% believed that nurses had partial responsibility for the document. 98.9% agreed that patients have the right to be informed about the document before taking any medical procedure.
The article establishes that there is insufficient knowledge on the use of informed consent among nurses. Nurses do not receive adequate training on the concept. As a result, there is insufficient application of informed consent. The study proved that nurses were more concerned about the legal perspective of the concept rather than its ethical dimension (Akyü, Bulut, & Karadağ, 2019). Most nurses believed that they only had responsibility for the concept in matters relating to nursing intervention. While the issue of informed consent is a critical aspect of the nursing practice, the study established that nurses did not take it seriously. Nurses either have inaccurate or incomplete knowledge and practices about the issue.
Informed consent serves to provide an opportunity for patients to make decisions about the surgical procedures that they are about to undergo. As a result, they become prepared in the event of the occurrence of risks such as pain, loss of organs, or death. Secondly, it enables patients to understand their situations. The nurse is able to explain to the patient about their situations and the need to conduct the surgical procedures. The patient then gets to understand the risk, benefits, and alternatives of the surgical procedures (Akyü, Bulut, & Karadağ, 2019). Thirdly, informed consent promotes a good relationship between a nurse and the patient. Being an ethical issue, the concept enables the two parties to come to terms with one another and agree on a common option. Fourth, informed consent enables nurses to comply with legal requirements for conducting surgical procedures.
As a student nurse, the concept of informed consent would enable me to seek the approval of patients before engaging in any surgical procedure. I will effectively communicate to my clients to enable them to understand their situations and make proper decisions with regard to recommended treatments. Secondly, I will use the knowledge of informed consent to embrace nursing ethics by adhering to the concept when making medical decisions for patients. I will actively involve my clients in decision-making about their health before taking critical medical procedures. Thirdly, I will abide by the requirements of informed consent as a nursing practice to be consistent with the legal requirement of medical procedures.
Reference
Akyüz, E., Bulut, H., & Karadağ, M. (2019). Surgical nurses’ knowledge and practices about informed consent. Nursing ethics , 26 (7-8), 2172-2184.
