Consent To Treatment NUR1113 PDF

NUR1113 Consent to treatment What is consent? Consent is the core of provision of treatment Consent is more than a formality Consent authorises a person – you or a doctor – to do what you would not otherwise be permitted to do. Consent needs to be ongoing What is consent? Every time! When you tr...

NUR1113 Consent to treatment What is consent? Consent is the core of provision of treatment Consent is more than a formality Consent authorises a person – you or a doctor – to do what you would not otherwise be permitted to do. Consent needs to be ongoing What is consent? Every time! When you treat a patient: You may be touching a patient, Taking a pulse You may be hurting the patient Using a BP Cuff, inserting a cannula, You may need to restrain a patient Analgesia, physical restraint All of which must be done with the patient’s approval. Consent allows a person (you or the doctor) to do what they would not otherwise be permitted to do What is consent? What happens if no consent? Failure to obtain consent, may lead to breach of contract in battery or in negligence Assault – threat to touch/intimidate Battery –touching a person without their permission False imprisonment – restraining a person without their permission There are potential Legal Consequences – breach of contract, battery, negligence What is consent? Who is responsible for obtaining consent? Whose responsibility? the person carrying out the procedure. How? Verbal – patient says yes or no Implied – patient holds out their arm for you to take their blood pressure In writing – Consent form Consent is not transferrable Consent elements Freely and voluntarily given Consent must be freely and voluntarily given It cannot be given under duress or coercion Cannot be given with misrepresentation or fraud Cannot tell the patient that if they don’t consent that they will be discharged – may be interpreted as a threat It cannot be given freely if the patient’s will is compromised through being under sedation Beausoleil v The Sisters of Charity (1964) 53 DLR (2d) 65 Consent given by a patient while under sedation was not consent Consent elements Must cover the procedure Consent must cover the procedure to be performed. If you ask to take a blood pressure, you can’t insert a cannula! If a doctor gets consent for a Caesarean Section, he/she cannot take out fibroids that he may find while the patient is under anaesthesia Murray v McMurchy (1949) Surgeon sterilised a woman who had agreed only to a Caesarean delivery Consent elements Consent must be “informed” Consent must be “informed” - sufficient information must be provided The practitioner must warn the patient of “material and significant risks” associated with the procedure Rogers v Whitaker (1992) 175 CLR 470 Wallace v Kam (2013) HCA 19 Patient must understand the information given NESB - Biggs v George NSWCA 113 Complicated medical language Lack of capacity Not health literate Under influence of medication Consent elements Patient must have “legal capacity” Patient must have “legal capacity” Adult of sound mind is said to have ‘capacity’ or to be legally ‘competent’ Adult >18 Age of Majority Act 1977 Vic Sound mind ? Mental Health and Wellbeing Act 2022 (Vic) Guardianship and Administration Act 2019 (Vic) Law provides for substitute decision makers Where patient who may not be considered competent to provide a valid consent eg. mental or intellectual capacity, dementia, Consent elements Patient must have “legal capacity” Patient must have “legal capacity”