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O
ne of the many duties of perioperative
nurses is to make sure cases start on time.
No matter how full the day's OR schedule,
however, they should never rush the informed con-
sent process. Their good intentions of trying to
move cases along places them between surgeons
and patients, and puts them and your facility at risk
of being sued for failing to provide proper informed
consent before procedures.
Informed consent is essentially a social contract
between a surgeon and a patient. The surgeon is
supposed to have a discussion with the patient
about the benefits, risks and alternatives to the pro-
cedure so the patient can make an informed deci-
sion about whether to go through with the surgery.
The conversation is what puts the "informed" in
informed consent.
Let's say a pre-op nurse asks a patient to sign the
consent form, but the patient says he was online the
night before and read that impotence was a poten-
tial side effect of the radical prostate surgery he's
scheduled to undergo, and wants to know how like-
The Ins and Outs of Informed Consent
Nurses who interfere with the process can land in legal trouble.
Medical
Malpractice
William Duffy, RN, MJ, CNOR, FAAN
CONVERSATION STARTER Nurses can make sure patients understand the questions asked on informed consent forms, but can't answer questions in place of the surgeon before
procedures begin.
