Decision Making Process

A successful healthcare framework is associated with the perfect implementation of different laws that assist the health professional as well as health staffs to maintain a strong connection with the patient, their families and any other person who is related to the healthcare service. This assignment has selected ‘Consent’ as the principal aspect of the law that has a potential impact on roles and everyday activities of nurses. Consent is an important principle for any healthcare framework in which service users provide his or her full permission regarding the receiving in the treatment (NMC, 2017). Based on the NHS guidelines of healthcare principles and ethics, consent from the patient or other health care staff provides the voluntary participating with the clinical setting as well as procedures that are set to improve the overall treatment process (NHS, 2018). This study will determine as well as analyse the impact of Consent on the nurse's roles in term sod providing best care as well as clinical support to the patient. Moreover, this study will determine the different types of consent and consequences that are associated with implementing proper healthcare ethics and integrity into the medical framework.

Nurses and Midwifery Council (NMC) viewed consent as one of the important aspects on healthcare laws through which they can assure the patient’s autonomy in term of choosing the best care and clinical process for them. According to Faden et al. (2014), true consent is associated with providing the proper respect as well as dignity to the patient in terms of allowing them to provide the proper permission to the innovative treatment process. As mentioned by Farrell et al. (2014) consent in highly important for conducting the better as well as effective communication between the nurse and service providers. Through getting proper consent for the patient, nurses can not only improve the way of interaction with the patient but also they can minimise the chances of any interpretation as well as misconception (NMC, 2017). In case of conducting the informed consent, nurses need to assure that all information that they provide to the patient are substantial for patients in terms of developing an effective decision regarding the treatment process. In this aspect Williams et al. (2015) stated that, in terms of poor communication and misunderstanding between the nurses and the patient, the consent becomes invalidated, which makes the patients unable to develop any proper decision regarding the treatment due to lack of proper information (RCN, 2017).

Informed consent is the form of written consent in which the patient provides his or her self declaration in terms of offering the full permission of getting the treatment. Based on the NHS guidelines, nurses would inform the patients regarding any type of treatment or clinical processes before starting them (NHS, 2017). Moreover, if the patient is ready to get the treatment process they are provided with the appropriate document in which the patients need to sign. Consent is associated with the extremely vital process in which the both understandable written and verbal information regarding the clinical procedures are provided to the patients (RCN, 2017). The patients are also provided with proper space and time in terms of making effective discussion with their family and friends regarding their decisions and thoughts. Based on the guidelines of Nursing Midwifery Code of Conduct, nurses need to ensure that each of the information that is provided to the patient is based solely on the treatment process and clinical setting that is appropriate for patient health needs. As stated by Riordan et al. (2015), in terms of receiving the proper consent from patients, nurses need to ensure that, patients are provided with the appropriate tools and facilities to measure the associated risk as well as advantages of the treatment processes before offering their consent. Understand guidelines of Health and Social Care Act (2012), consent is one of eth most important principle of the healthcare framework, which not only allow patients to analyse the associated risk and advantages of the treatments and clinical processes' that are going to be implemented, but also it protects the rights to offer valid consent for each clinical setting (NMC, 2017).

According to the Nurses and Midwifery Council (NMC), another important aspect of getting valid consent from the patients is the capacity of the patient. Based on NMC guidelines, the nurse needs to ensure that the patient has proper mental health to form the effective as well as appropriate decision for their treatment process (NHS, 2017). Under that UK legislative framework, Mental Capacity Act (2005), highlight the importance of patient mental capacity in terms of making the strong as well as an effective decision for their healthcare processes. Based on this legislation, if the patient is mentally disabled, for example, dementia or Alzheimer patient, nurses cannot get the proper valid consent from them. In this case, nurses have full authority to discuss the healthcare decisions with the health professional as well as family members of the patient in term of getting the proper consent for implementing innovative treatment (NMC, 2017). The UK based laws have set the fact that, the individual with more than 18 years old should be considered as eth competent adult. Under the NHS guidelines, nurses in terms of getting proper valid consent from the patient, nurses' should check the two aspects:

The patient is the competent adult (more than 18 years) The patient is mentally stable and has proper decision making and problem-solving skill According to Riordan et al. (2015), in some cases, the patient is unable to give the consent directly to the health professionals regarding the treatment process. In this aspect, the consent is granted by actions conducts of the patient rather than direct communication with the patient (RCN, 2017). For example, in case patient unable to speak or communicate properly, nurses can assume the consent trough nodding of heads, moving of the hand and body part or watching the facial expression. This type of consent is known as implied consent. In the case of the implied consent, the nurses need to understand the decision and thoughts of the patient by observing the circumstances and facts surrounding treatment (NHS Choice, 2017). Therefore, implied consent pose huge responsibilities on the health professional regarding implementing the innovative treatment process in such a way that can assist eth patent to get rid of eth health disorders.

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that nurses need to focus on the agreed treatment process that is permitted or granted through patient consent. In case of patient with mental illness, nurses need to discuss the overall professional and family members of the patient in term so getting the proper approval before starting or implementing any clinical process. Moreover, the nurse needs to make consistent support to the patient in terms of motivating them to develop well as well as the appropriate decision that can contribute to their self-assessment. Nurses need to be well trained in dealing with patient’s rejection of giving any consent to a treatment process. In this aspect, if the treatment process is important for that patent, nurse need to discuss the fact with the patient's family and health professional and make the patient understand the necessity of the testament. Finally, it can be concluded that consent is paramount to implement the best clinical settings into the healthcare framework. It not only improves the interaction as well as communication between the serves users and nurses but also protect eth rights of the patient to offerthe valid consent.

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Reference list:

• Faden, R.R., Beauchamp, T.L. and Kass, N.E., 2014. Informed consent, comparative effectiveness, and learning health care. N Engl J Med, 370(8), pp.766-768.
• Farrell, E.H., Whistance, R.N., Phillips, K., Morgan, B., Savage, K., Lewis, V., Kelly, M., Blazeby, J.M., Kinnersley, P. and Edwards, A., 2014. Systematic review and meta-analysis of audio-visual information aids for informed consent for invasive healthcare procedures in clinical practice. Patient Education and Counseling, 94(1), pp.20-32.
• Katz, A.L., Webb, S.A. and Committee on Bioethics, 2016. Informed consent in decision-making in pediatric practice. Pediatrics, p.e20161485.
• Kim, S.Y. and Miller, F.G., 2015. Informed consent for pragmatic trials: the integrated consent Model.
• nhs.uk, (2018), overview , Consent to treatment [Online, available at:, [Accessed on 13 March 2017]
• nhs.uk. (2017). Consent to treatment. [online] Available at:
• Nursing and Midwifery Council (2015). The Code: Professional Standards of Practice and behaviour of nurses and midwifes NMC, London
• Riordan, F., Papoutsi, C., Reed, J.E., Marston, C., Bell, D. and Majeed, A., 2015. Patient and public attitudes towards informed consent models and levels of awareness of Electronic Health Records in the UK. International journal of medical informatics, 84(4), pp.237-247.
• Riordan, F., Papoutsi, C., Reed, J.E., Marston, C., Bell, D. and Majeed, A., 2015. Patient and public attitudes towards informed consent models and levels of awareness of Electronic Health Records in the UK. International journal of medical informatics, 84(4), pp.237-247.
• The Royal College of Nursing.(2017). Consent | Advice guides | Royal College of Nursing. [online] Available at: [Accessed 14 Dec. 2017].
• Williams, H., Spencer, K., Sanders, C., Lund, D., Whitley, E.A., Kaye, J. and Dixon, W.G., 2015. Dynamic consent: a possible solution to improve patient confidence and trust in how electronic patient records are used in medical research. JMIR medical informatics, 3(1).