Page 102 - Human Rights
P. 102
Faculty of Nursing
Adult care Nursing Department
3.2.2 Consent
The principle of free and informed consent is a core value in the health professions.
It is not just about “permission-giving” but rather about a decision-making process which is
sensitive to context.
It was affirmed as central to ethical health care in the Nuremberg Code and nurses, as frontline
careers, play a key role in ensuring that “the individual receives sufficient information on which to
base consent for care and related treatment.”
As a 2001 public enquiry into paediatric heart surgery in the UK affirmed:
The process of informing the patient, and obtaining consent to a course of treatment, should be
regarded as a process and not a one-off event consisting of obtaining a patient’s signature on a
form. The process of consent should apply not only to surgical procedures but to all clinical
procedures and examinations which involve any form of touching. This must not mean more
forms: it means more communication.
As informed consent requires patient access to information, the right to information becomes an
important factor in this process.
It is critical that the consent of the patient is protected as a central tenet of nursing and the other
caring professions and must be sought prior to undertaking any nursing procedure. Where
patients are incompetent – that is, prevented from taking decisions in an informed manner by
learning difficulties, serious mental illness, young age or unconsciousness – then nurses must act
in consultation with parents, guardians or other family members, with other clinicians, and in
patients’ best interests.
3.2.3 Confidentiality
98 Academic Year 2025/2026
