Consent to Treatment

Course Overview

This Ausmed Course will enhance your knowledge of valid client consent to ensure people’s rights are acknowledged while being cared for by a healthcare professional or staff member.

Topics

• What constitutes valid consent?
• How can consent be given?
• What criteria must a person meet in order to provide consent?
• When can children consent to treatment?

Need

Informed consent is fundamental to safe healthcare practices as it considers the patient’s right to exercise autonomous decision-making in their own care. Without appropriate informed consent, a healthcare professional or member of staff risks being implicated in situations that may have potentially severe legal and health ramifications.

Reinforcing existing knowledge and gaining new knowledge of what informed consent is and what criteria a person must meet to provide consent is essential if nurses and other health professionals are to practice in a manner that protects the public.

Purpose

The purpose of this Ausmed Course is to enhance the knowledge of valid consent to ensure people’s rights are acknowledged while being cared for by a healthcare professional or staff member. All healthcare staff require a precise knowledge of valid consent in order to provide appropriate care to clients, patients or residents. A failure to respect a person’s right to consent can lead to serious legal and moral consequences.

Learning Outcomes

• Provide people in your care with sufficient information to be able to make an informed decision about their consent to treatment.
• Recognise that best-practice acknowledges the partnership role people in your care have in consenting to treatment.

Target Audience

This Ausmed Course is relevant to all registered healthcare professionals and unregistered care staff who require consent from a person in their care.

Disclosure

No conflict of interest exists for anyone in the position to control content for this activity. Wherever possible, generic or non-proprietary names of medications or products have been used.

Educator

Linda Starr View profile

Dr Linda Starr (PhD) is an associate professor in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Flinders University. She also has extensive experience as a registered nurse and is the South Australian practitioner member on the National Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. Linda is passionate about the intersection between healthcare and the law, with a particular focus on the mandatory reporting of elder abuse.