Patient Care : Consent, Strategies & Communication Choices

Patient-Centered Care: Consent, Communication, and Shared Decision-Making Strategies for HCPs

Consent and shared decision-making are critical aspects of healthcare that healthcare professionals should be knowledgeable about. Consent refers to the agreement of a patient to undergo a medical intervention or treatment after receiving all relevant information about the intervention or treatment, including its risks, benefits, and alternatives. Shared decision-making, on the other hand, is a collaborative process between the healthcare provider and the patient, where they work together to make decisions about the patient’s healthcare based on the patient’s values, preferences, and needs. This module will discuss the importance of consent and shared decision-making, the legal and ethical principles related to these concepts, and strategies that healthcare professionals can use to enhance shared decision-making and consent.

Importance of Consent and Shared Decision-Making

Consent and shared decision-making are critical in healthcare for several reasons. First, consent is a fundamental principle of medical ethics, which requires healthcare professionals to respect the autonomy of their patients by providing them with all the relevant information they need to make informed decisions about their healthcare. Consent ensures that patients have control over what happens to their bodies and their health outcomes.

Shared decision-making, on the other hand, is important because it recognizes that patients have unique needs, values, and preferences that need to be considered when making healthcare decisions. Shared decision-making involves a collaborative approach between healthcare providers and patients that ensures that healthcare decisions are based on the patient’s values and preferences. Shared decision-making has been found to improve patient outcomes, increase patient satisfaction, and reduce healthcare costs.

This particular course has been designed for healthcare professionals such as doctors, dentists, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, osteopaths, chiropractors, psychologists, physiotherapists, and others. The program focuses on providing specialized training courses in Probity and Ethics to these professionals. Clinicians attend these courses either for professional development or for appraisal/re-validation purposes, or if they are facing any investigation or proceedings with regulatory bodies such as the GMC, GDC, NMC, GPhC, GOSC, GCC, MPTS, or any other.

The courses are conducted by experienced facilitators who have worked in both the NHS and private healthcare sectors. The facilitators are well-versed with the processes of GMC investigations and the MPTS, which helps build insight, reflection, and remediation if clinicians are facing any complaints or investigations in their respective departments or with regulatory bodies.

The course aims to enhance the knowledge and understanding of probity and ethics, as well as the professional and ethical standards expected from healthcare professionals. It also helps clinicians learn what to do in case of a breach and avoid situations of misconduct and fitness to practice.

Moreover, the organisation also arranges face-to-face (via video-link) courses on a personal basis. The topics covered in the courses include Probity, Ethics, and Professionalism, the standards of which are expected from healthcare professionals by regulatory bodies such as GMC, GDC, NMC, or HCPC. The course content also highlights the importance of ethics, probity, and professionalism in healthcare practice and includes case examples of healthcare professionals who have had cases with their respective professional bodies, which provide valuable lessons to learn from.

Finally, the course delivery is focused on clinicians who are facing any investigation, hearing, or case in their departments or with regulators such as GMC, GDC, NMC, HCPC, or other healthcare regulatory bodies. The aim is to ensure that clinicians are meeting the expectations of regulatory bodies, avoid situations of misconduct, and demonstrate that any similar mistake or misconduct will not be repeated in the future.