Which of the following statements about informed consent are correct?
A. Before a health care provider delivers care, ethical & legal standards require that the patient provide informed consent. Informed consent is a concept in the medical community which supports the idea that patients should be fully informed at all stages of medical treatment & medical trials. There are two aspects to informed consent: a conversation with a care provider or researcher, & a form which must be signed to indicate that the conversation has occurred.
B. Informed consent is a very important part of modern medical practice & research, and it is designed to protect both patients & doctors. The concept of the need for informed consent arose from the Nuremberg Trials held after the Second World War, when the court was subjected to detailed descriptions of experiments carried out by the Nazis in concentration camps. This testimony was used as evidence to convict and punish researchers who had performed such experiments, & it also raised ethical issues for medical practitioners. As a result, many nations started adopting some version of an informed consent law.
C. The idea behind informed consent is that it is very important for patients & research subjects to be actively involved in their care, participating in the decision making process with a full awareness of any potential consequences of a treatment. Informed consent laws place a heavy emphasis on the value of individual human rights & autonomy by insisting that informed consent be obtained for medical procedures. If the patient cannot provide informed consent, then, for most treatments, a legally authorized surrogate decision-maker may do so.
D. In an informed consent discussion, a doctor will discuss the patient's condition and possible treatment options, along with the option the doctor recommends. The patient will be informed about the possible outcomes, results, & complications of any treatment, including a decision not to treat the condition, & the patient is invited to ask questions for clarification.
Whichofthefollowingstatementsaboutinformedconsentarecorrect?
As a general rule, doctors are encouraged to use plain, clear language so that patients understand the conversation.
B. Once the patient has been briefed & asked to make a decision, the patient will be asked to sign an informed consent form for major procedures. In other instances, a doctor may note the patient's consent in the patient's chart, which serves as a legal document. If the patient later has a dispute with the doctor, the evidence of informed consent will be brought forward as evidence.
C. In an emergency situation when the patient is not legally competent to give informed consent & no surrogate decision-maker is readily available, the law implies consent on behalf of the patient, assuming that the patient would consent to treatment if he or she were capable of doing so.
D. Information that must be conveyed to & consented to by the patient includes: the treatment's nature & character & anticipated results, alternative treatments (including non-treatment), & the potential risks & benefits of treatment & alternatives. The information must be presented in a form that the patient can comprehend (i.e., in a language & at a level which the patient can understand) & that the consent must be voluntarily given.
What should be covered in the informed consent as suggested byAmerican College of Surgeons?
A. What are the indications that have led your doctor to the opinion that an operation is necessary? What, if any, alternative treatments are available for the patient's condition?
B. What will be the likely result if the patient don't have the operation? What are the basic procedures involved in the operation? What are the risks?
C. How is the operation expected to improve the patient's health or quality of life? Is hospitalization necessary &, if so, how long can you expect to be hospitalized?
D. What can the patient expect during his or her recovery period? When can the patient expect to resume normal activities? Are there likely to be residual effects from the operation?
Clinicians include:
A. physicians, surgeons
B. nurses, social workers
C. clinical psychologists, clinical ethicists
D. medical technicians, chaplains, & others responsible for the welfare of patients
Clinical ethics can be defined as:
A. Clinical ethics is a structured approach to ethical questions in clinical medicine.
B. Clinical ethics is a discipline or methodology for considering the ethical implications of medical technologies, policies, and treatments, with special attention to determining what ought to be done (or not done) in the delivery of health care.
Clinical ethics focuses on topics regarding the doctor-patient encounter & the principles governing the ideal human character in relationships with other healthcare workers, families & medical institutions.
D. Clinical ethics is the application of ethical reasoning to & within clinical practice. It includes the analysis of issues arising in clinical care, the development of justifiable solutions to these issues, the application of ethical reasoning tools in day-to-day clinical practice, as well as teaching programs, support services, & decision processes aimed to help foster such application.