There are many principles according to which nurses and patients can develop their relations. Each principle is a unique combination of ethical and legal aspects. They help to define the way for nurses to react to different patients’ behaviors and choose the most appropriate solutions to the possible problems and challenges. The current article discusses the peculiarities of the informed consent process within the frames of which a patient and its surgeon discuss the details of a coming operation. However, the author of the article underlines the fact that nurses have to be also defined as considerable participants of such kind of agreement. Nurses have to perform a function of a patient advocate, who has “an entrusted interest in fully understanding the legal and ethical considerations of the informed consent process” (Menendez, 2013, p. 140).
The article has several logical sections in which Menendez discloses the peculiarities of the relations between nurses and patients and defines the functions nurses have to perform in regards to their patients. With the help of a literature review, it becomes apparent that the necessity to identify the risks, benefits, and possible alternatives of surgeries has a long history. Still, the role of nurses in this process has been recently identified. The point is that nurses have all legal rights to facilitate patient autonomy and support the decision of a patient taking into consideration the current physical conditions.
In other words, this article helps to understand the importance of the positions any nurse can have. At the same time, the author proves that nurses have to develop appropriate relations with surgeons to make sure that the priority of patient autonomy does not influence the patient’s health condition. The informed consent process helps to predetermine the development of the relations between a patient, surgeon, and nurse.
Reference
Menendez, J.B. (2013). Essential legal and ethical principles for nurses. JONA’s Healthcare Law, Ethics, and Regulation, 15(4), 140-144.