Bachelor of Nursing: Consent, Mandatory Reporting, and the RN's Role

This essay examines the crucial role of a Registered Nurse (RN) in handling consent and mandatory reporting issues concerning infants, children, and young people. The paper begins with an introduction that outlines the essay's purpose, structure, and chosen scenario, which involves a four-year-old patient, Matilda Braithwaite, admitted for a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. The discussion section delves into consent, emphasizing the legal aspects, especially for minors, and the RN's responsibility in obtaining informed consent from parents or guardians, referencing NMBA Registered Nurse Standards for Practice (2016) and relevant legislation. The essay then addresses mandatory reporting, detailing the legislative requirements and the RN's duty to report suspected child abuse or negligence to the appropriate authorities, also referencing the NMBA standards. The conclusion summarizes the key points, highlighting the importance of informed consent and the RN's role in protecting children's rights through mandatory reporting, and the paper is supported by a list of references.

Running head: BACHELOR OF NURSING
BACHELOR OF NURSING
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Introduction:
The purpose of the essay is to demonstrate the understanding of the role of the
registered nurse concerning issues of consent and mandatory reporting for infants. The paper
will illustrate consent in the first paragraph, mandatory reporting in the second paragraph,
and legislation in third paragraphs. Lastly, the paper will provide a concise conclusion for the
readers to gain an understanding of the method.
For this paper, the chosen patient scenario is Matilda Braithwaite, a four-year-old
child who was admitted in the childcare because of tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy and she
was seen by the ENT who referred the tonsillectomy. The paper will address the topic with
the assistance of the relevant literature, NMBA Registered Nurse Standards for Practice
(2016) and relevant legislation.
Discussion:
Consent:
The consent is a form of the permission obtained from the person who voluntarily
agrees to participate in a medical procedure in their conscious state (Foy 2015). Consent is
one of the crucial parts of medical treatment, especially when a child is the patients (Grady
2015). While the legal age of being considered as an adult in Australia is 18 years, the
children aged 16 years and over can consent to their own medical treatment as validly as if an
adult (Www.racgp.org.au 2019). At this age, the children already develop self-awareness and
health professionals expected to nurse and respect the self-awareness of the children. In the
emergency, the health professional in charge of the child, parents of the child, court and other
agencies can provide the informed consent on the behalf of the child (Www.racgp.org.au
2019). If the parents and doctors both refuse to give the consent, then the education should

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be given to the parents regarding the importance of the treatment and in that case for the best
interest of the child, any legal authority can provide the consent(Foy 2015). If a child makes
up their mind, the big banter, Australian human rights commission can provide consent on
this behalf.
Role of a registered nurse is to obtain consent from the concerned person in the
conscious state. If the children failed to provide the consent regarding their treatment, the
registered nurses advocate for the informed consent and obtain informed consent from the
parents (Committee on Bioethics 2016). However, it is responsibility registered nurse to
obtain the consent from both child and parents regarding the episodes of nursing care and
surgery (Humanrights.gov.au. 2019). If parents are not present then it should be obtained
from any other legal guardian or health professionals. In this case, according to standard 2.5,
the nurses advocate on behalf of the people for respecting the autonomy and legal capacity
(Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au 2019). As the children under 16 years unable to provide
consent, it is the responsibility of the registered nurse to advocate for the children.
The case study represents Matilda Braithwaite, a four-year-old child who was
admitted in the childcare because of tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy and she was seen by
the ENT. In this case, the consent should be taken from the parent of the child as the child is
fours and unable to provide consent.
There is also specific legislation in New South Wales and South Australia regarding
the medical treatment of children. In South Australia, Consent to Medical Treatment and
Palliative Care Act 1995 outline the legal requirement for obtaining the consent from the
minors where a child of 16 years or more can provide the consent if medical practitioners
confirm that the child is capable of understanding the consequence of the treatment and it

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should be written by the professional who was advocating for the child (Www.racgp.org.au
2019).
Mandatory reporting:
Mandatory reporting is the legislative requirement for the selected class of people in
order to report to the government authorities for suspected child abuse or any negligence
(Everitt, Homer and Fenwick 2017). It is a legislative requirement designed for safeguarding
the best interest of children.
In order to make a mandatory report checklist is used such as identification of details,
mandatory reporter details, details of the concern, other family details, history of education
or care action, living with a person who has committed sins such as criminal neglect,
serious harm. After that cultural notes and decision note is required to make (van Bijleveld,
Dedding and Bunders‐Aelen, 2015).
In this case, the registered nurses are one of the mandatory notifies who will report
the negligence of the children treatment to the Department for Child Protection. Big banter is
one of these top projects of Australian human rights commission which promotes the child
rights and the mandatory reporter such as registered nurse will report to the commission. The
mandatory reporting should be based on reasonable ground (Humanrights.gov.au. 2019). The
duty of care is another role of a registered nurse as mandatory notified where mandatory
notified should consider how he or she can respond to the need of the child and families
(Humanrights.gov.au 2019). According to 6.5 standards NMBA, the nurses are required to
report potential and acute risk associated with the system issues
(Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au 2019).
The case study represents Matilda Braithwaite, a four-year-old child who was
admitted in the childcare because of tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy and she was seen by

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the ENT. In this case, the mandatory notified such as registered nurse is required to report
any negligence to the department of child protection (Gillingham, 2016). The registered
nurse is required to provide accurate ground for the report.
Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017 designed by for safeguarding
the children and young outline the legal requirement for the mandatory reporting
and recognize the duty of care for the reporter (Oates, 2019). Under section 163 of
the Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017, the identity of the reporter would not be
disclosed.
Conclusion:
The purpose of the essay is to demonstrate the understanding of the role of the
registered nurse concerning issues of consent and mandatory reporting for infants. It can be
said that to protect the legal rights of the children, informed consent is required to obtain
from the children of 16 years or above. The registered nurses play a crucial role in restoring
the child rights and it can be done by mandatory notification.

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References:
Committee on Bioethics. 2016. Informed consent in decision-making in pediatric
practice. Pediatrics, 138(2), e20161484.
Everitt, L., Homer, C., and Fenwick, J. 2017. Working with vulnerable pregnant women who
are at risk of having their babies removed by the Child Protection Agency in New South
Wales, Australia. Child abuse review, 26(5), 351-363.
Foy, M.A., 2015. Informed consent: where are we in 2015?. The bone & joint journal, 97(9),
pp.1159-1161.
Gillingham, P. 2016. Social work and child protection in Australia: whose job is it anyway?.
Practice, 28(2), 83-96.
Grady, C. (2015). Enduring and emerging challenges of informed consent. New England
Journal of Medicine, 372(9), 855-862.
Humanrights.gov.au 2019. Our Work | Australian Human Rights Commission. [online]
Humanrights.gov.au. Available at: https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work [Accessed 9
Aug. 2019].
Humanrights.gov.au. 2019. Children's Rights | Australian Human Rights Commission.
[online] Available at: https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/childrens-rights [Accessed 9
Aug. 2019].
Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au 2019. Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia -
Professional standards. [online] Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au. Available at:
https://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Codes-Guidelines-Statements/Professional-
standards.aspx [Accessed 28 Jul. 2019].

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Oates, K. 2019. Child Protection Systems in Australia. In National Systems of Child
Protection (pp. 7-26). Springer, Cham.
van Bijleveld, G.G., Dedding, C.W. and Bunders‐Aelen, J.F., 2015. Children's and young
people's participation within child welfare and child protection services: a state‐of‐the‐art
review. Child & Family Social Work, 20(2), pp.129-138.
Www.racgp.org.au 2019. Consent to medical treatment: the mature minor [online]
Racgp.org.au. Available at:
https://www.racgp.org.au/download/documents/AFP/2011/March/201103bird.pdf [Accessed
9 Aug. 2019].