Nursing Consent Case Study

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According to Niles (2013, p.34) law is defined as a ‘body of rules for the behaviour on individuals and organisations and is created so there is minimal standards of action required from individuals and organisations’. In healthcare, law is essential as it enables patients to have the highest standards of care as the law enables patients to be respected as individuals. As a nurse you need to have good knowledge of laws as it impacts on everyday decisions in your practice. According to the medical definition of consent it is defined as the principle of a person giving permission before receiving any type of medical examination or any treatments (Consent to treatment, 2014) This essay will be discussing the aspect ‘consent’ and how a nurse should apply consent in everyday practice and how it impacts practice; also, it will discuss certain legislations which relate to consent taking such as, The Mental capacity Act. The NMC states that as a nurse it is vital that you gain consent before you begin any treatment or care and that you should respect people’s decisions for…show more content…
However, the famous case of Gillick in 1985 looked at consent for children under the age of sixteen. It was stated that a competent child has the right to give consent to medical treatments (Gillick Competent, 2015) I agree with this theory as during placement there were some children under sixteen which were mature and would ask questions regarding the procedure which showed they had capacity to consent for themselves. Caulfield (2005, p.130) states that consent should only be given by someone with capacity as it is vital for a person giving consent is aware and understands what the procedure will involve and the job of a nurse is to ensure sufficient information is given to the patient as this is seen as the second part of a valid

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