Open AccessConsent obtained by the junior house officer—is it informed?
Author(s) -
James S Huntley,
Dorothy A. Shields,
N K Stallworthy
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of the royal society of medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.38
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1758-1095
pISSN - 0141-0768
DOI - 10.1177/014107689809101007
Subject(s) - house officer , senior house officer , informed consent , officer , medicine , perforation , medical emergency , medical education , family medicine , surgery , alternative medicine , engineering , law , pathology , mechanical engineering , political science , punching
Of 30 junior house officers questioned, 21 had obtained patients' consent for colonoscopy. Of these 21, about one-third did not routinely discuss with patients the risks of perforation and haemorrhage. Ideally, consent should be obtained by a person capable of performing the procedure. If it is to be obtained by junior house officers, they need to know exactly what must be disclosed about each procedure. This could easily be done as part of the induction package.