Learning programme · #P8
A ten-module programme on valid consent, shared decision-making, risk, refusal and lawful authority across UK clinical practice.
Healthcare professionals involved in examination, investigation, treatment and shared clinical decisions.
Certificate process: Integrated final assessment + optional private reflection + course completion certificate
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Consent is the patient's permission for a proposed examination, investigation, treatment or other intervention. In good practice it is reached through a decision-making process in which the clinician and patient exchange information, identify what matters to the patient and reach a shared understanding of the available choices. The GMC describes shared...
Materiality cannot be reduced to a standard complication list. The clinician needs to understand the outcomes that matter to the individual, because a low-frequency harm may be decisive for one person and less important to another. This is the practical legacy of Montgomery and is mirrored in GMC guidance requiring clinicians to explore a patient's...
A patient cannot make a meaningful healthcare decision if information is inaccessible or if they cannot express their preferences. Communication support is therefore part of valid decision-making, not an optional courtesy. The clinician should actively identify barriers and adapt the process rather than interpreting difficulty as incapacity. Barriers may...
Consent requires a person who can make the relevant decision, but disagreement with clinicians is not evidence of incapacity. The consent clinician should notice when capacity is genuinely in doubt, support the person to decide, and then use the applicable decision-specific framework. The full methodology belongs in the ClinicalEdu Mental Capacity...
An emergency can compress the time available for discussion, but it does not abolish respect for autonomy. A conscious patient who can make the decision should still be involved. Focus the discussion on the immediate decision, the most important benefits and harms, realistic alternatives and what may happen without treatment. Royal College of...
Children and young people should be involved in decisions about their care as much as they are able. The first clinical task is therefore not to ask only who can sign, but to explain the decision in a developmentally appropriate way, hear the young person's views and identify what they understand and want. Assent is a useful educational term for a...
An adult who can make the relevant decision can refuse recommended treatment, including treatment that clinicians believe is life-saving. The response is not to raise the capacity threshold because the consequences are serious. Instead, ensure the patient has the information they need, check understanding and voluntariness, address communication...
A procedure may generate more paperwork, but the underlying standard is unchanged: the patient needs an opportunity to understand the proposed intervention, the material risks and benefits, reasonable alternatives and what may happen without it. The depth of the discussion should reflect complexity, uncertainty and the patient's priorities. The clinician...
Consent is often built across several contacts: a specialist recommends treatment, a nurse provides education, a pharmacist discusses medicines, and another clinician performs the procedure. This can be good care, but only if roles are clear and the patient receives a coherent decision process. A dangerous team assumption is 'someone else must have done...
A useful consent record identifies the decision being made, the relevant options and material information discussed, patient-specific concerns or priorities, questions raised, the outcome and any need for review. Capacity, communication support, voluntariness or legal authority should be recorded when they are relevant to the decision. The note should be...
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