Institute:Office of National Coordinator (ONC) Workforce Training Curriculum
Component:The Culture of Health Care
Unit:Ethics and Professionalism
Lecture:Contemporary topics in medical ethics
Slide content:Informed Consent Patients must Be capable of making medical decisions Be provided with all relevant information Understand the information given Communicate a decision Make voluntary decisions 5
Slide notes:Informed consent is based in the duty to respect patient autonomy. Health care professionals are required, as both a legal and an ethical duty, to obtain informed consent from patients before administering treatment. Lack of informed consent is often the basis for a malpractice case. One of the basic tenets [ ten -its] of informed consent is that the patient must be capable of making medical decisions. Most adults are presumed to have this capacity unless there is strong evidence to the contrary. An adult who is capable of making his or her own medical decisions must be given all the relevant information necessary to give valid informed consent. The information must be provided in a way that is understandable to the patient, and the patient must voluntarily communicate a decision to accept the treatment. 5