INFORMED CONSENT IN RELATION TO OPERATING ROOM PROCEDURES
This research reviews the issues associated with the concept of patient informed consent in relation to the performance of operating room procedures. These issues are addressed in discussions of the basic character of informed consent, physician-nurse dichotomies related to the concept of patient informed consent, and the role of informed consent with respect to actions on do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders within the operating room.
The Basic Character of Informed Consent
Surgical patients frequently are asked to make important decisions related to operating room procedures on the basis of minimal or confusing information (Owen, 1995, p. 864). Most patients are unfamiliar with medical terminology, and if such terminology is not explained in lay terms, a question exists as to whether informed consent can be given by the patient. The ethical principal involved is patient autonomy (Kokiko & Watts, 1995, p. 220). In relation to operating room procedures, a patient has the right to make decisions about her or his own welfare, and such decisions cannot be made effectively in the absence of all of the necessary information on which to base such decisions--informed consent.
Most frequently, the decision makers in surgery settings are physicians and nurses (Haddad, 1991, p. 151). There is at a general level, however, an acknowledgment that the patient or a substitute decision maker representing the patient's interests should play a significant role in making decisions in the surgery setting that affect the patient. In the United States, the Patient Self-Determination Act "mandates that hospitals ensure that a patient's right to make health care decisions is upheld" (Golanowski, 1995, p. 10). The patient's right to autonomy in health care includes operating room procedures affecting the patient.
Except in emergency care situations, a patient being prepared for a surg...