CONSENT IN NURSING

Consent in Nursing

[Name of Student]

Consent in Nursing

Introduction

Informed consent in nursing practice is a legal doctrine, which refers to a voluntary and clear agreement, is made between patients, or client, who is competent or autonomous, and the health care providers. The agreement is only made after comprehending sufficient information relation to a proposed action of treatment. In some cases, the informed consent can be implied, as well as, expressed. The expressed content refers to the verbal or written request that takes place (Ni Lin & Chen, 2007).

Dimond (2008) states that according to law, there is no time-scale to set the validity of the consent. In fact, the consent form refers to evidence that the patient has given consent to a specific procedure at any given time. Nevertheless, the patient can change his/her mind. The only essential component of consent is that the patient is mentally capable and comprehends the procedure fully, in addition; consent should be voluntary, and there is no influence to obtain the consent. Moreover, healthcare providers should be able to offer sufficient information relating to the associated risk that the patient can suffer (Anonymous, 2009). This is also portrayed in study of Aveyard (2003), which underpins these requirements of informed consent.

As mentioned earlier, consent is defined as “voluntary and not influenced by external pressures, inducements, or coercion and should have a background of sufficient information and adequate understanding” (Williams, 2011). This statement is generally applied to the majority of the adult population. However, this does not hold this significant important in the cases of children. Even though, older children may be able to comprehend the treatment they are being offered, they still lack the maturity and competency to understand the associated risks. Therefore, the health care providers should fully explain the full intervention to the parents.

Discussion

The Consent from Adults

The considerable rise in the elderly population is characterized through significant cultural diversity, as well as, alterations in the process of aging. Therefore, the issues involving the performing of informed consent with the elderly population are often complex and comes as a challenge for the practicing nurses. It is critical for the practicing nurses to be cultural sensitive with respect to their patients, as well as, establish a trusting relationship while going through the process of obtaining informed consent (Ni Lin & Chen, 2007). According to Powell (2007), the nurses become a legal and ethical implication to obtain an informed consent. Even though, it was not applied in the two decades, the trend has changed today.

Factors Affecting the Process of Informed Consent

There are various sources, which correlates the influence of several factors that play a role in obtaining the quality of informed consent in the nursing practice. Many studies done on the topic finds the socio-demographic factors to be one of the associated links. In addition, through aging several physical changes, like the progressive loss of hearing or vision, medical illness, as well as, impairment can produce different results of obtaining the informed ...