Informed Consent: An Ethical Way of Nursing
As nurses, we deal with informed consent a lot—on admission to a hospital/clinic or before a procedure/surgery. Nurses typically are assigned the task of obtaining and witnessing written consent for healthcare treatment. I’ll never forget admitting to our busy psychiatric unit a young mother who’d been found unresponsive after a drug overdose. She’d been taken to the emergency room to stabilize, and her young child taken into protective custody. Now on the locked psych unit, she was terrified to sign the consent form for admission and treatment, afraid for herself and her child whose whereabouts she did not know. I repeatedly explained what I knew about her child, treatment plan, and consent process, including that she did not have to sign the admission consent. However, if she did not sign, her admitting psychiatrist would request, and be granted, a “court hold” to admit her involuntarily. If she signed as a “voluntary” admission, it would suggest she was cooperating with treatment.
I knew it was in her best interest to sign, but understood it was her decision. The goal of informed consent is to assure patient autonomy. My patient didn’t have a choice of treatment alternatives, but she did have a choice to be admitted voluntarily or involuntarily. I felt ethically compelled to preserve that choice.
After almost an hour of listening, supporting, and explaining, I needed to give medications to other patients. My plan was to offer this woman a hot shower to help calm her and give time to process what was happening. Then, if she still could not sign the consent, I would explain I had to inform her psychiatrist, and we would proceed with a court hold.
When I stepped out of the room, I told my supervisor my plan. She hastily went to the patient, stuck the form and a pen in front of her, saying, you need to sign this NOW! My patient complied, tears streaming down her face.
I’ve since thought a lot about informed consent. I’ve worked in med-surg, cardiac rehab, intensive care, medical research, and psychiatry. In all settings, nurses are on the front lines of assuring patients truly are giving informed consent.