Doctors’ and nurses’ knowledge and perceptions about patient informed consent in the emergency department

Abstract

Background: Patient informed consent is a critical aspect of health care practice and research and is a strategy which ensures that patients understand and accept the risks and benefits prior to an intervention. The concept of informed consent has evolved significantly with regard to the active patient involvement, practice of medicine and research conducted and has been found to be essential to quality patient care. Furthermore, it is a commonly acknowledge fact that to integrate informed consent into daily practice, it is crucial that all staff have the required standard knowledge, confidence and competence. Aim and Objectives: The main aim of this study was to assess the knowledge of doctors and nurses working at the Emergency Department about IC and their perception of competence and confidence related to IC. It further sought categorise these findings in relation to the demographic variables of the participants. Design and Methods: The study was conducted among 38 doctors and nurses working at the Emergency Department of the local public hospital in Malta. A self-administered online questionnaire, consisting of 38 close-ended knowledge questions and 12 statements regarding perception of confidence and competence, were prepared by the researcher and used to collect the data. For analysis of the results, frequencies, percentages obtained using the Spearman’s Test and Kruskal-Wallis tests, where appropriate. Results: The doctors and nurses who participated in this study had 6-15 years general work experience and most of these had <5 years or 5 years of work experience in the Emergency Department. The majority of the participants did not have post graduate qualifications and most them had received some education on informed consent in their undergraduate studies. Overall the findings show that the participants’ level of knowledge between doctors and nurses resulted in promising results however, not statistically significant whilst both had more knowledge in IC and law than in other domains. Conclusions: The overall participants’ knowledge level on informed consent was moderate with doctors’ knowledge ranging better than nurses. Overall a weak correlation was noted with knowledge about IC and practices whilst a moderate correlation was shown between IC and Law and IC and policy. Further training, updated guidelines with more awareness about patient informed consent the ethical and legal aspect of it to both doctors and nurses would aid in having more knowledgeable professionals resulting in better patient outcome.