Dataset Information

A survey of the current practice of the informed consent process in general surgery in the Netherlands.

ABSTRACT:

Unlabelled

Additional non-English language abstract (in Dutch)

Background

A properly conducted surgical informed consent process (SIC) allows patients to authorize an invasive procedure with full comprehension of relevant information including involved risks. Current practice of SIC may differ from the ideal situation. The aim of this study is to evaluate whether SIC practiced by Dutch general surgeons and residents is adequate with involvement of all required elements.

Methods

All members of the Dutch Society of Surgery received an online multiple choice questionnaire evaluating various aspects of SIC.

Results

A total of 453 questionnaires obtained from surgeons and residents representing >95% of all Dutch hospitals were eligible for analysis (response rate 30%). Knowledge on SIC was limited as only 55% was familiar with all three basic elements ('assessment of preconditions', 'provision of information' and 'stage of consent'). Residents performance was inferior compared to surgeons regarding most aspects of daily practice of SIC. One in 6 surgeons (17%) had faced a SIC-related complaint in the previous five years possibly illustrating suboptimal SIC implementation in daily surgical practice.

Conclusions

The quality of the current SIC process is far from optimal in the Netherlands. Surgical residents require training aimed at improving awareness and skills. The SIC process is ideally supported using modern tools including web-based interactive programs. Improvement of the SIC process may enhance patient satisfaction and may possibly reduce the number of complaints.

Achtergrond

Het doel van het preoperatieve informed consent proces (surgical informed consent, SIC) is om patiënten een weloverwogen en welgeïnformeerde keuze te laten maken over hun operatieve ingreep. De hedendaagse praktijk betreffende SIC staat mogelijk ver van de ideale situatie af. Doel van deze studie is om de dagelijkse praktijk van chirurgen en chirurgen in opleiding betreffende SIC te evalueren en te zien of deze voldoet aan de daarvoor gestelde eisen. METHODE: Alle chirurgen en andere leden van de Nederlandse Vereniging voor Heelkunde ontvingen een online multiple-choice vragenlijst betreffende de belangrijkste aspecten van SIC. RESULTATEN: In totaal waren er 453 bruikbare reacties uit meer dan 95% van alle Nederlandse ziekenhuizen (respons 30%). De kennis over SIC blijkt zeer beperkt. Slechts 55% van de chirurgen bleek bekend met de drie basiselementen van SIC ('beoordelen van de competentie van een patiënt', 'verstrekken van informatie' and 'adequaat vastleggen van de toestemming van de patiënt'). De dagelijkse praktijk liet behoorlijke verschillen tussen alle respondenten zien, maar chirurgen in opleiding scoorden significant slechter vergeleken met chirurgen. 17% van alle chirurgen kreeg de afgelopen vijf jaar te maken met een klacht betreffende SIC, wat zou kunnen wijzen op een suboptimale implementatie van SIC in de dagelijkse praktijk.

Conclusie

De kwaliteit van het preoperatieve informed consent proces is in Nederland verre van goed. Chirurgen in opleiding scoorden minder goed dan chirurgen en dienen beter geschoold te worden. Het hele SIC proces zou geformaliseerd moeten worden in protocollen. Moderne hulpmiddelen zoals interactieve softwareprogramma's kunnen hierbij mogelijk helpen. Door het verbeteren van het SIC proces kan de patiëntentevredenheid verhoogd worden terwijl het aantal klachten mogelijk wordt verminderd.

SUBMITTER: Leclercq WK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3804026 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

A survey of the current practice of the informed consent process in general surgery in the Netherlands.

Leclercq Wouter Kg WK Keulers Bram J BJ Houterman Saskia S Veerman Margot M Legemaate Johan J Scheltinga Marc R MR

Patient safety in surgery 20130121 1

Additional non-English language abstract (in Dutch)<h4>Background</h4>A properly conducted surgical informed consent process (SIC) allows patients to authorize an invasive procedure with full comprehension of relevant information including involved risks. Current practice of SIC may differ from the ideal situation. The aim of this study is to evaluate whether SIC practiced by Dutch general surgeons and residents is adequate with involvement of all required elements.<h4>Methods</h4>All members of ...[more]

PMID: 23336609

Similar Datasets

Project description:One undisputed benefit of digital support is the possibility of contact reduction, which has become particularly important in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is currently no study assessing the Europe-wide use of digital online pre-operative patient information or evaluation in the health sector. The aim of this study was to give an overview of the current status in Europe. A web-based questionnaire covering the informed consent process was sent to members of the European Society of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine (ESAIC) in 47 European countries (42,433 recipients/930 responses). Six questions related specifically to the practice in paediatrics. A total of 70.2% of the respondents indicated that it was not possible to obtain informed consent via the Internet in a routine setting, and 67.3% expressed that they did not know whether it is in line with the legal regulations. In paediatric anaesthesia, the informed consent of only one parent was reported to be sufficient by 77.6% of the respondents for simple interventions and by 63.8% for complex interventions. Just over 50% of the respondents judged that proof of identity of the parents was necessary, but only 29.9% stated that they ask for it in clinical routine. In the current situation, 77.9% would favour informed consent in person, whereas 60.2% could imagine using online or telephone interviews as an alternative to a face-to-face meeting if regulations were changed. Only 18.7% participants reported a change in the regulations due to the current pandemic situation. Whether informed consent is obtained either online or on the telephone in the paediatric population varies widely across Europe and is not currently implemented as standard practice. For high-risk patients, such as the specific cohort of children with congenital heart defects, wider use of telemedicine might provide a benefit in the future in terms of reduced contact and reduced exposure to health risks through additional hospital stays.

Project description:BackgroundProviding understandable information to patients is necessary to achieve the aims of the Informed Consent process: respecting and promoting patients' autonomy and protecting patients from harm. In recent decades, new, primarily digital technologies have been used to apply and test innovative formats of Informed Consent. We conducted a systematic review to explore the impact of using digital tools for Informed Consent in both clinical research and in clinical practice. Understanding, satisfaction and participation were compared for digital tools versus the non-digital Informed Consent process.MethodsWe searched for studies on available electronic databases, including Pubmed, EMBASE, and Cochrane. Studies were identified using specific Mesh-terms/keywords. We included studies, published from January 2012 to October 2020, that focused on the use of digital Informed Consent tools for clinical research, or clinical procedures. Digital interventions were defined as interventions that used multimedia or audio-video to provide information to patients. We classified the interventions into 3 different categories: video only, non-interactive multimedia, and interactive multimedia.ResultsOur search yielded 19,579 publications. After title and abstract screening 100 studies were retained for full-text analysis, of which 73 publications were included. Studies examined interactive multimedia (29/73), non-interactive multimedia (13/73), and videos (31/73), and most (34/38) studies were conducted on adults. Innovations in consent were tested for clinical/surgical procedures (26/38) and clinical research (12/38). For research IC, 21 outcomes were explored, with a positive effect on at least one of the studied outcomes being observed in 8/12 studies. For clinical/surgical procedures 49 outcomes were explored, and 21/26 studies reported a positive effect on at least one of the studied outcomes.ConclusionsDigital technologies for informed consent were not found to negatively affect any of the outcomes, and overall, multimedia tools seem desirable. Multimedia tools indicated a higher impact than videos only. Presence of a researcher may potentially enhance efficacy of different outcomes in research IC processes. Studies were heterogeneous in design, making evaluation of impact challenging. Robust study design including standardization is needed to conclusively assess impact.

Dataset Information

A survey of the current practice of the informed consent process in general surgery in the Netherlands.

Unlabelled

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Achtergrond

Conclusie

Publications

A survey of the current practice of the informed consent process in general surgery in the Netherlands.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets