Question

• What are the various types of consents in healthcare? Describe the importance of each and give an example of each type.
• Do you have any experience with these you would like to share?

Answer 1

Consent is the permission or an agreement from the patient that should be taken before performing any examination, diagnosis or treatment procedures. It is a must before any procedure or treatment.

The patient should be of required age and also in good state of mind to give consent. If not then the parents, family members or sometimes even friends can give consent on their behalf in some specific conditions. The age to give consent and the special conditions vary from country to country. These are general consents followed by most countries.

The different types of consent in health care are

INFORMED CONSENT : The patient should be given complete information regarding his / her medical condition, diagnostic procedures that are to be performed and treatment options available. The patient should be informed and clearly explained the procedures of various treatments, advantages, necessities, risks, disadvantages and possible complications. After providing all the information required to the patient, the patient should be allowed to choose the treatment he/she would like to receive and a consent should be taken from them. This is informed consent. They can be given in following ways.

ORAL CONSENT is the consent the patient gives orally. This is useful during examination. The clinician explains the patient about the procedure of examination and the patients agrees to it orally.

Example: while examining the varicose veins, the patient is asked to show his/her lower limbs up to the level of upper thigh. The patient agree and makes it visible for the examiner to examine. This is accepted legally and used for normal examination purposes.

WRITTEN CONSENT is the consent that is taken on a hard copy of a legal document and the patient is supposed to sign on this. This is a must for major diagnostic and surgical procedures or treatment that could be dangerous.

Example is obtaining written consent for an appendectomy, cesarean section etc.

The main advantage of this type of consent is that it can be documented in patient records and can be provided in court of law

The oral and written consent comes under expressed consent.

IMPLIED CONSENT is the consent that can be implied by patients actions.

For example if the patient stretches his hand while you are about to draw some blood or place an intra venous cannula. Or a pregnant lady loosens her shirt and makes her abdomen visible when the obstetrician is about to examine her abdomen. The clinician should be very careful with this time of consent and should better ask the patient orally if he/she is not sure.

There are also other consents legally like forced consent.

This is a brief discussion on the given topic. Hope this helps you out. Please feel free to give a like and contact us if you need further detail explanation. Thank you and have a great day.