Professional Practice II: Consent Obligations in Healthcare Setting

This assignment focuses on the concept of consent in healthcare, specifically addressing a case study involving an LPN, Gina, in a surgical unit. The assignment explores the definition of consent, different types of consent, and the significance of informed consent for patients and healthcare professionals. It examines the LPN's obligations in verifying consent, ethical considerations, and relevant professional standards, particularly Standard 4 of Ethical Practice and Standard 3 of Consent to Practice. The analysis highlights the importance of clear communication, patient understanding, and adherence to ethical guidelines when obtaining consent before medical procedures. The assignment emphasizes the LPN's role in promoting patient rights, seeking appropriate information, and ensuring ethical practice within the healthcare setting, including how to handle situations where consent is unclear or incomplete. The provided solution offers insights into how Gina should handle the situation, reflecting on the importance of informed consent and ethical nursing practice. The assignment includes a case study, analysis of professional standards, and ethical considerations related to patient consent in a surgical environment.

Professional Practice II
Student's Name:
Student's ID:
Subject:

1
Answer 1
Consent takes place when one individual voluntarily agrees to the proposal of another. To me,
the term consent is determined to be a common speech with particular definitions utilized in a
different field. There are different types of consent, such as unanimous consent, informed
consent, expressed consent and implied consent (Coffey et al., 2015). In healthcare, consent
means having the right to revoke, refuse or choose healthcare after being informed regarding the
plan of care. As a result, consent is based on legal requirements that provides sufficient
information to patients regarding their health.
Answer 2
Consent is important to a patient as it provides an opportunity for a patient to participate in their
health care decisions. A particular patient is allowed to gain an understanding of the medical
procedures and reasonable understanding of the future involvements related to risks,
uncertainties and benefits (Havaei, MacPhee & Susan Dahinten, 2016). In others, words
informed consent helps a patient to get knowledgeable consent to a procedure or treatment as
well as who is going to perform the procedure or the treatment.
On the other hand, consent is significant for an assigned LPN as it prevents her from liability for
harming a patient that takes place due to the procedure. An LPN is required to deal with
informed consent before the beginning of the treatment procedure (Jones, Toles, Knafl & Beeber,
2018). Generally, the LPN is responsible for witnessing and getting written consent for
healthcare treatment.
Answer 3
The CLPNBC Professional Standard that can be applied to the case study is Standard 4 of Ethical
Practice. This particular standard states that the LPN promotes, upholds and understands the
ethical standards of the nursing profession (Tarnowski, Bateman, Stanger & Phillips, 2017). As
per this standard, the Gina, an LPN on a busy surgical unit, must demonstrate integrity and
honesty while assisting Ms Saara. Before preparing Ms Saara for surgery, she must promote,

2
respect and identify Ms Saara's right to be informed regarding her health condition that will
enable her to make informed decisions.
Answer 4
The CLPNBC Practice Standard that applies to consent is Standard 3 of Consent to Practice
Standard.
The indicators of this Practice Standard are as follows:
 LPN's must promote, respect and recognize clients rights to be informed regarding their
health (McCloskey, Donovan, Stewart & Donovan, 2015)
 LPN's must respect the rights of the clients to make decisions regarding their health and
revoke, refuse or give consent
 LPN's must meet ethical and legal regulations when acquiring client consent
 Before providing healthcare, LPN's obtain consent, unless it is needed by legislation
Answer 5
As an LPN, Gina obligations were to communicate with patients and their families, assist
registered nurses and doctors, observe patients health and provide routine care. It is her duty to
deal with informed consent at the time of admission of a patient to a hospital or before surgery or
procedure. Generally, they are assigned the task of getting and witnessing written consent of the
patient for healthcare treatment (Li, Pittman, Han & Lowe, 2017).
Answer 6
As per ethical considerations, there possess certain options for Gina when such situation arises
while obtaining patient informed consent. Before the surgery, Gina acknowledged that Ms Saara
had not signed the consent form, thus there is an option where she can inform this situation to the
risk manager or nurse manager. After seeking information from these managers, she has the
option to get consent from the patient and witness it, putting her signature on the form.

3
Answer 7
In this case, study if I would have been in place of Gina, I would have reflected on the matter of
informed consent that is to be obtained at the time when Ms Saara was admitted to the hospital or
before the surgery.
As per my opinion, as an LPN, Gina must comply with ethical standards of nursing which states
that LPN's are responsible for getting consent before facilitating health care. As Ms Saara has not
signed the consent form; thus, Gina must inform Ms Saara regarding her health condition.
In such a situation, I would have informed the risk manager or nurse regarding the situation and
get an idea of what is to be done. This would have helped me in getting appropriate information
about what resources to be used to get consent from Ms Saara. Moreover, by maintaining nursing
ethical standards, I would have decided to obtain the consent of Ms Saara by understanding her
consent and putting my signature into the consent form.

4
References
Coffey, S., Lindsay, G. M., Cochrane, M., Cummings, K., Macdonald, K., Mairs, S., & Bell, R.
(2015). Making the grade through the front door: evaluation and innovation in a
registered practical nurse to Bachelor of Science in nursing program. Journal of
Education and Training Studies, 4(1), 32-38.
Havaei, F., MacPhee, M., & Susan Dahinten, V. (2016). RN s and LPN s: emotional exhaustion
and intention to leave. Journal of nursing management, 24(3), 393-399.
Jones, C. B., Toles, M., Knafl, G. J., & Beeber, A. S. (2018). An untapped resource in the
nursing workforce: Licensed practical nurses who transition to become registered
nurses. Nursing outlook, 66(1), 46-55.
Li, S., Pittman, P., Han, X., & Lowe, T. J. (2017). Nurse‐related clinical nonlicensed personnel
in US Hospitals and their relationship with nurse staffing levels. Health services
research, 52, 422-436.
McCloskey, R., Donovan, C., Stewart, C., & Donovan, A. (2015). How registered nurses,
licensed practical nurses and resident aides spend time in nursing homes: An
observational study. International journal of nursing studies, 52(9), 1475-1483.
Tarnowski, G. J., Bateman, T., Stanger, L., & Phillips, L. A. (2017). Update of licensed practical
nurse competencies in Alberta. Journal of Nursing Regulation, 8(2), 17-22.