Free Essay Exploring Cases of Informed Consent in Nursing

Chapter 8 Case

Based on the case of the patient illustrated in Chapter 8 of the text, it is quite significant to underscore the fact that the right of the patient to know the status and the names of the persons who were deemed to carry out the procedure on the patient had weight in the case. As much as the patient was given the information before her consent, the news was not very accurate to warrant her rightful decision making. This notion is on the fact that without adequate information then the patient is not in a position to make autonomous decisions regarding the treatment process in a medical setting (Guido, 1997). The protection of the autonomy of the patient brings in an affirmative duty in the provision of the information in the most appropriate manner. However, the mere provision of information to the patient does not give a decision making process by the patient.

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The student's reaction has some weight in this case in that it creates a vacuum in the mind of the patient to make a solid decision regarding her health and treatment process. The student nurse, in this case, had the role to give the full names to all the persons concerned with the fundoplication surgery to avoid any chances of doubt in the side of the patient as it happened on this very patient (Guido, 1997). As much as the student could have not explicitly stated to the patient that she was an intern, she had the mandate to give her full names to avoid any cases of a doubt on the side of the patient and also to allow the patient to make an informed decision in the medical setting.

Based on the circumstances around the case, the decision is on the manner in which the information partially was to the patient. There is the professional accountability in the consent delivery according to the law. This clause states the health professional administering the process of patient consent is personally answerable to the law in case of any possible omissions and errors in the entire process (Guido, 1997). Therefore, it was against the code for the hospital administration to allow the student under internship to undertake the process of giving informed consent to the patient. This practice was the first mistake that the hospital made on the laws governing the informed consent among the patients.

The final verdict on this case would be in favor of the patient because the hospital failed in its role of proper supervision as the patient could not make an informed decision based on the inadequate information that the student gave to the same patient (Guido, 1997). It is evident on the written policies governing such processes, the student had to be supervised by an anesthesiologist, but not the nurse anesthetist as it took place in this case.

The case of Breast Biopsy

The issue, in this case, seems complicated because the patient has already given consent to the procedure, but the husband now seems disturbed by the entire process. Under the law, adults are allowed to make decisions on informed consent personally, and no relative, parent or health professional is permitted to interfere in this process. None is even allowed to withhold the consent on behalf of the patient unless some special legal provisions have been made available and must be in very particular purposes that must have been before this procedure. Based on this clause under the informed consent laws, the husband has no obligation to deny the wife from undergoing through the breast biopsy (Tong, Tong & Low, 2018). The husband has to be held down under the law to accept the verdict of his wife in that the only provision is insufficient and does not cover his case of thought. A relative has only authority to give informed consent on behalf of a minor. Based on this clause, the husband does and cannot act as the parent of the wife because the wife is an adult.

The next category where a relative can give informed consent deals with a situation where the patient is unconscious and cannot provide informed decision yet the condition is getting and no more time can be available before the procedure. Based on this case, the wife is quite conscious and is in a position to speak and could also claim that she is very well aware of the procedures on the breast biopsies and that there is no cause for alarm. Therefore, the husband has no basis in this provision under the law. The final case lies with the patients in the emergency room and needs very urgent attention to take up the process. Such cases would require a relative to come in and sign the informed consent form to help save the life of the patient (McBride et al., 2018). Based on this situation, the wife is nowhere close to admission in the emergency, and thus she has the legal rights to make the informed consent on her own.

Jimmy Chang Case

The case in this part is complex by the parents taking different stands on the chemotherapy on their patient. The father has declined to sign the informed consent form while on the contrary, the wife has accepted to sign the form. This case comes with some confusion between the legal and the ethical standards maintained by the nurses in the process of delivering quality medical care to the patients (Mcnamara, Konick-McMahan, Thomas & Scruth, 2018). The moral model used by the nurses in making decisions that cut across both the legal and the ethical standards in the medical setting. It would be significant for the nurse to underscore the fact as to whether the son was consulted in the first place before getting into the moral distress of getting the right parent to give the decision making on behalf of this patient.

From the age of the son that is at 20 currently, he is now allowed under the law to give informed consent without the intervention of the parent. Therefore, it would be significant for the nurse to ask Jimmy first to clarify if he is ready for the process or not. This decision is also on the fact that Jimmy had undergone the procedure earlier in his life and is in a better position to give the right judgment minus the rigor efforts from his parents. However, the nurse must be conscientious while getting information from the patient because he could be carrying a decision based on pressure from one of the parents (Tong, Tong & Low, 2018). Therefore, the nurse must ensure that the informed consent from the son is solely his own decision and not in any way a process obtained from the pressures from the parents.

References

Guido, G. W. (1997). Legal issues in nursing. Appleton & Lange.

McBride, S., Tietze, M., Robichaux, C., Stokes, L., & Weber, E. (2018). Identifying and Addressing Ethical Issues with Use of Electronic Health Records. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(1).

Mcnamara, L. J., Konick-McMahan, J., Thomas, K., & Scruth, E. A. (2018). Clinical Nurse Specialist Certification Examinations: Legal and Ethical Considerations. Clinical Nurse Specialist, 32(1), 7-11.

Tong, S. F., Tong, W. T., & Low, W. Y. (2018). Ethical Issues in Qualitative Data Collection Among Vulnerable Populations in Healthcare Setting. In Ensuring Research Integrity and the Ethical Management of Data (pp. 80-97). IGI Global.