"Sign here": nursing value and the process of informed consent

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Bioethics
• Health Law

Background:

• Patient autonomy is a cornerstone of ethical healthcare practice.
• The nursing profession is ethically and legally obligated to advocate for patients, particularly within the informed consent process.
• Current literature lacks empirical data on the specific value and optimal implementation of nursing's role in procedural informed consent.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide a comprehensive overview of the legal, ethical, and practical dimensions of procedural informed consent.
• To examine and elucidate the value and contribution of nursing within the informed consent procedure.
• To identify the need for increased nursing research in the area of informed consent.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of ethical codes, legal doctrines, and nursing practice standards related to informed consent.
• Analysis of the theoretical underpinnings of nursing's role in patient advocacy and decision-making.
• Identification of gaps in current research regarding nursing's impact on informed consent.

Main Results:

• The ethical and legal frameworks support nurses' involvement in informed consent.
• While the theoretical value of nursing's role is recognized, empirical evidence is scarce.
• A significant gap exists in research quantifying the impact of nursing interventions on the quality of informed consent.

Conclusions:

• The nursing profession's role in safeguarding patient autonomy through informed consent is critical.
• There is a compelling need for robust nursing research to develop evidence-based best practices for informed consent.
• Advancing nursing research in this domain will benefit patients, healthcare providers, and the nursing profession.