Introduction
The concept of a mature minor is a regulatory law that permits emancipated minors to act as mature people when receiving health care services. The concept allows minors to have a say in the methods of treatment that their physicians perform on them. In most cases, minor patients are treated with the consent of their parents, but the concept of mature minors allows the minors to have the final say in different situations. The law was developed as a line of defense for health care physicians handling patients under 15 years (Spike, 2011). Prior to the development of the mature minor concept, many physicians were sued by parents for working with the consent of the minor patients in different situations rather than following the desires of the parents. Criminal and civil claims could be grounded in the violation of parental consent on the part of doctors.
Health care providers are frequently faced with challenging situations when giving care to minors (Berlan & Bravender, 2009). Sometimes they are forced to make a decision that is against the consent of the parents to help the minors recover faster. It is also common for minors to prefer different approaches to health care provision. The concept of mature minors grants the minors the power over their parents and their physicians because their preferences always prevail under the law. The court can grant a minor the power to decide the treatment methods he or she provides if the child is found to be mature enough to understand the consequences of the decision. The concept of a mature minor is important when parents are not around, and the doctors need the consent to continue with a risky treatment procedure. It may also be important when the parents do not want to make the best option for their child.
Patient Consent
Nurses have the obligation to ensure that their patients make informed and voluntary consent to treatment options. This requirement is an ethical issue that must be addressed by the nurse providing the patient with the relevant information about the consequences of the available options. In essence, the nurse must also investigate the cognitive ability of the patient before allowing him or her to sign the consent papers. Sometimes the medications and different procedures like surgery can interfere with the cognitive ability of the patient. The nurse is obliged to help the patient understand the positive and negative repercussions of every available option (Lachman, 2008). The nurse decides that the consent of a patient is truly voluntary and informed when the patient can relate to all the consequences of the decision.
When a nurse feels that a patient has no ability to give legal consent, the nurse should obtain the consent of other parties that are legally allowed to give it. For instance, if the patient is in an emergency situation, the head nurse can give consent to meet the best interests of the patient in terms of recovery. In other situations, there can be a legally permitted person to give consent, but it has to be voluntary and informed. For instance, if the patient is in a coma, the parents may have the legal obligation to give consent to any medical procedure conducted on the patient. Nurses should also respect it when the patient is adamant about refusing to give consent even if the lack of it leads to their deterioration in wellness status. The political reality of the situation is that all procedures of treatment must be conducted with the consent of the patient or a legally selected person.
Case
According to the patient’s right and legal responsibility of the caregivers, the patient must consent to the procedures performed on him for treatment. Consent must be informed and voluntary. It is, however, the obligation of the nurse to ensure that the best interests of the patient’s health are met when consent cannot be legally acquired from the patient. In this case, the patient is in a state where he cannot give voluntary consent. He is depressed, and possibly not in the best status of cognition to understand the necessity of the procedure. The patient’s rights also provide that the patient can refuse to have a procedure performed on him regardless of the consequences to his health. If the patient, in this case, is in a cognitive status that enables him to give consent, then he may have a legal case (Appelbaum et al., 2014).
The case can be based on the tort of malpractice on the part of the nurse. It is quite clear that health caregiver must get the consent of a patient before conducting any procedures. If the patient is an adult with the ability to comprehend the information about the available treatment procedures, he should be solely responsible for the choice he makes (Wirshing et al., 2014). In this case, the patient was adamant that he did not want the procedure, but the nurse performed it; hence, it is a case of malpractice. The nurse can use the depressed condition of the patient as a defense because depression can impair cognition.
References
Appelbaum, P. S., Grisso, T., Frank, E., O’Donnell, S., & Kupfer, D. J. (2014). Competence of depressed patients for consent to research. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 156(9), 1380-1384.
Berlan, E. D., & Bravender, T. (2009). Confidentiality, consent, and caring for the adolescent patient. Current opinion in pediatrics, 21(4), 450-456.
Lachman, V. D. (2008). Making ethical choices: Weighing obligations and virtues. Nursing2014, 38(10), 42-46.
Spike, J. P. (2011). When ethics consultation and courts collide: A case of compelled treatment of a mature minor. Narrative inquiry in bioethics, 1(2), 123-131.
Wirshing, D. A., Wirshing, W. C., Marder, S. R., Liberman, R. P., & Mintz, J. (2014). Informed consent: assessment of comprehension. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 155(11), 1508-1511.