Informed Consent:
The process in which a healthcare provider educates a patient about the risks, benefits, and alternatives of a given procedure or intervention.
Use your B.R.A.I.N. for informed decision-making / shared decision-making: BENEFITS, RISKS, ALTERNATIVES, INTUITION, NOTHING.
Why is Informed Consent Important?
The patient must be competent to make a voluntary decision about whether to undergo the procedure or intervention. It is both an ethical and legal obligation of medical practitioners in the US and originates from the patient's right to direct what happens to their body. Implicit in providing informed consent is an assessment of the patient's understanding, rendering an actual recommendation, and documentation of the process.
Just the Inserts: Making Informed Medical Decisions
Essential Components of Informed Consent
The Joint Commission requires documentation of all the elements of informed consent
"in a form, progress notes or elsewhere in the record."
The following are the required elements for documentation of the consent discussion:
(1) The nature of the procedure,
(2) The risks and benefits and the procedure,
(3) Reasonable alternatives,
(4) Risks and benefits of alternatives, and
(5) Assessment of the patient's understanding of elements 1 through 4.
It is the obligation of the provider to make it clear that the patient is participating in the decision-making process and avoid making the patient feel forced to agree to with the provider. The provider must make a recommendation and provide their reasoning for said recommendation.
- NIH National Library of Medicine