The Importance Of Consent In Health Care

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The purpose of this essay is to introduce the concept of consent, briefly identify its types and legal fundaments, examine significance of consent in a healthcare provision and illustrate the main issues involved with patients’ consent with midwifery practice as the focal point of interest. According to Medical Dictionary (2003) ‘consent’ is an ‘act of reason’, voluntary agreement to proposed treatment made by a mentally capable person upon receiving relevant information. Patients’ consent is closely associated with individuals’ liberty, person’s autonomy and the right to decide about themselves and their body with assumption of taking full responsibility for decision and its consequences (Frith and Draper, 2004).

Department of Health …show more content…

Professional standards of practice and behaviour for nurses and midwives’ (2015) which states that obtaining patient’s informed consent is an act in their best interest and that nurses and midwives are required to respect individual’s right to accept or refuse treatment, moreover, support and document their decision, give evidence-based information, use clear language, cooperate with patients to help them with making the decision and be aware of the current legislations. This includes ‘Mental Capacity Act 2005’, ‘Mental Health Act 1983‘and ‘Human Rights Act 1998’. From a healthcare perspective vital articles are those which set out the rules for accessing patient’s capacity to make a decision, clarify who makes decisions for those who lack capacity and how this should be done, likewise those that regulate how to treat and protect patients without their consent but also those that specify basic human rights: to life, privacy, receiving information and other such as right to be free from discrimination or inhuman, degrading treatment. Other regulations to consider are ‘Human Tissue Act 2004’, ‘Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990’ (GMC, 2015). Professionals should also consider common criminal …show more content…

Breaching the law may have serious consequences as in some cases it may be treated as a criminal offence; moreover, patients have legal instruments to seek retribution for acting against their wishes. Consent then should be recognized not only as a principle and moral obligation but also as a powerful tool to protect both patients and professionals from negligence and misconduct allegations. In the aspect of midwifery practice is vital to seek consent prior any examination, care or treatment and some aspects of practice such as free birthing or refusal of caesarean section require more consideration. Likewise, women’s voluntary agreement is clinically significant as it has been identified that cooperation of an individual is vital for a successful treatment (Griffith, Tengnah and Patel,

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