Patient Rights and Informed Consent - Essay Example

Informed Consent vs. Educated Consent Informed consent or the right of every patient to understand the risks and liabilities of the procedure that they face is absolute and must be followed through by every physician. However, evidence has shown that patients do not understand the risks and liabilities of the procedures that they are undergoing. In essence, they are putting their lives in the hands of their medical professionals without those professionals making sure that their patients are properly educated about the risk involved.

Three components exist in informed consent: first, that the patient understands the medical procedure, risks, alternatives, and benefits; second, that consent is/has been given willingly and without duress, and finally, that the patient is mentally competent to give said consent (Hopper, TenHave, and Hartzel 493-496). However, consent forms have become tasked with not only listing every possible risk, but adding in the jargon of hospital lawyers concerned about liability (Hopper et. al. 493-496).

The biggest stumbling block to understanding that most patients face is that the forms given to them are simply written at a level above their understanding. A truly informed consent, or educated consent, requires not only disclosure but also a fundamental understanding of the disclosed information (Arnold et. al. 21-28). In a 1995 study, it was found that the average generic surgical consent form had 397 words per form and required almost sixteen years of education for a patient to fully be educated about the risks and liabilities of their procedure (Hopper et. al. 493-496).

An even more disturbing fact was that only 28% of Americans had attended any college at all, and 72 million were marginally or functionally illiterate (Hopper et. al. 493-496). The educational level of patients is also an important factor affecting the level of understanding because patients with a lower educational level may feel embarrassed to ask explanatory questions (Falagas, Korbila, Giannapoulu, Kondilis, and Peppas 420-435). Several other reasons exist to explain a lack of understanding of risks and details, namely that some patients do not read the informed consent form before signing.

It was found that 69% of patients surveyed after surgery did not read the consent form before signing (Arnold et. al. 21-28). Another reason is the emotional state and emotional factors that come into play from one patient to another. Patients may be unable to comprehend the risk, such as death, that the procedure may entail (Falagas et. al. 420-435). Unfortunately, even less patients on average appear to be able to recall important details of informed consent after surgery. Recall of information in the context of informed consent has been reported as poor by many different studies, and also conspicuously inconsistent, varying from 18% to 81% in surveys conducted on the same day that the information had been given to the patient (Brezis, Israel, Weinstein-Birenshtock, Pagoda, and Sharon 352-357).

In a post-operative surgery of retinal patients, while 97% thought that the informed consent was satisfactory, only 57% were able to pass a post-surgical informed consent quiz; additionally, though patients had been given the information in the informed consent agreement, 75-86% denied hearing the information reflected in the questions that were asked (Moseley, Wiggins, and OSullivan 993). When results of recall on informed consent based on different methods of teaching were examined, the group given the post-surgical test after having received only written informed consent agreements scored “significantly lower” than the other two groups that had received visual aids/diagrams and/or a video presentation (Moseley et. al. 990-993).

It has become clear that the gap between “informed” consent and “educated” consent is widening, and shows no signs of getting smaller. Though some medical professionals have begun to use different techniques in order to help patients have a better understanding of truly informed consent, the fact remains that serious attention must be given to this basic component of medical ethics. Works CitedArnold, Suzanne, Carol Decker, Homaa Ahmad, Olawale Olabiyi, and Surya Mundluru. "Converting the Informed Consent from a Perfunctory Process to an Evidence-Based Foundation for Patient Decision Making.

" Journal of the American Heart Association. 1. (2008): 21-28. Web. 30 Sep. 2011. .Brezis, Mayar, Sarah Israel, Avital Weinstein-Birenshtock, Pnina Pagoda, and Ayelet Sharon. "Quality of Informed Consent for Invasive Procedures." International Journal for Quality in Health Care. 20.5 (2008): 352-357. Web. 30 Sep. 2011. .Falagas, Matthew E., Ioanna P. Korbila, Konstantina P. Giannapoulu, Barbara K. Kondilis, and George Peppas. "Informed Consent: How Much and What do Patients Understand?." American Journal of Surgery. 198. (2009): 420-435. Web. 30 Sep. 2011. Hopper, Kenneth D.

, Thomas R. TenHave, and Jonathan Hartzel. "Informed Consent Forms and Clinical Procedures: How Much Do Patients Understand?." American Journal of Radiology. 164 (1995): 493-496. Web. 30 Sep. 2011. . Moseley, T.H., M.N. Wiggins, and P OSullivan. "Effects of Presentation Method on the Understanding of Informed Consent." British Journal of Ophthamology. 90. (2006): 990-993. Web. 30 Sep. 2011. .