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CMECNE

Informed Consent: Key Elements

Learning Objectives and CME/Disclosure Information

Original Launch Date: 3/31/2022

Expiration Date: 3/1/2024

ACCME PARS: 74979

This activity is intended for healthcare providers delivering care to women and their families.

After completing this activity, the participant should be better able to:

1. Discuss the difference between informed consent and shared decision making
2. Describe key elements in the informed consent process

Estimated time to complete activity: 0.25 hours

Faculty:

Ashley Comfort, MD, FACOG is the Director of Medical Content, ObG Project.

Disclosure of Financial Relationship

Postgraduate Institute for Medicine (PIM) requires faculty, planners, and others in control of educational content to disclose all their financial relationships with ineligible companies. All identified conflicts of interest (COI) are thoroughly vetted and mitigated according to PIM policy. PIM is committed to providing its learners with high quality accredited continuing education activities and related materials that promote improvements or quality in healthcare and not a specific proprietary business interest of an ineligible company.

The PIM planners and others have nothing to disclose. The OBG Project planners and others have nothing to disclose.

Faculty: Susan J. Gross, MD, receives consulting fees from Cradle Genomics.

Planners and Managers: PIM Planners have nothing to disclose

Method of Participation and Request for Credit

Participants must read the learning objectives and faculty disclosures and study the educational activity.

If you wish to receive acknowledgment for completing this activity, please complete the test and evaluation. Upon registering and successfully completing the test with a score of 100% and the activity evaluation, your certificate will be made available immediately.

Joint Accreditation Statement

In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by the Postgraduate Institute for Medicine and The ObG Project. Postgraduate Institute for Medicine is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.

Physician Continuing Medical Education

Postgraduate Institute for Medicine designates this enduring material for a maximum of 0.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Continuing Nursing Education

The maximum number of hours awarded for this Continuing Nursing Education activity is 0.25 contact hours.

Read Disclaimer & Fine Print

Part 1: Informed Consent Overview | Part 2: Shared Decision Making

SUMMARY:

ACOG updated its Committee Opinion regarding informed consent and shared decision making in the obstetric and gynecological setting. Many of the key concepts hold true for medical care in general. One of the main elements in the document is providing the context to help the clinician differentiate between informed consent and shared decision making. The two concepts overlap but can also have competing interests when both ethical and legal obligations must be met.

Informed Consent

Informed consent is a process to provide patients with information that is necessary and relevant to their decision making (including the risks and benefits of accepting or declining recommended treatment) and to assist patients in identifying the best course of action for their medical care

Shared Decision Making

Shared decision making is a patient-centered, individualized approach to the informed consent process that involves discussion of the benefits and risks of available treatment options in the context of a patient’s values and priorities.

Key Points for Informed Consent

Informed consent requires that relevant information be presented accurately and sensitively about
- The diagnosis (when known)
- The nature and purpose of recommended interventions
- The burdens, risks, and expected benefits of all options, including forgoing treatment
For the sake of simplicity, it is assumed that the adult patient has the capacity to make decisions and it is a nonemergency situation as different steps must be followed
If the patient consents to treatment
- Obtain a signed consent form
- Document the informed consent process | The form does not replace the informed consent process
If the patient does not consent
- The patient cannot be forced to sign that consent was not given
- Document the information given and the patient’s nonconsent
- Be aware of the prevailing legal standards for the community where care is being rendered

Note: See the companion entry on shared decision making in ‘ObG Related Topics’ below

Learn More – Primary Sources:

ACOG Committee Opinion 819: Informed Consent and Shared Decision Making in Obstetrics and Gynecology

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