Informed consent: a case for more education of the surgical team.
A questionnaire was given to 37 members of staff of the Department of Surgery, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, in order to determine whether their knowledge was adequate to give accurate information to patients regarding operations and thus to obtain properly informed consent for that operation. Each participant was asked to estimate the 24-h and 30-day mortality for five common elective operations. A wide range of answers was given for operations by all groups. Estimates of 24-h mortality after unilateral inguinal herniorrhaphy differed between staff grades by a factor of 3, but estimates of 24-h mortality after thyroidectomy differed by a factor of 100 between consultant surgeons and staff nurses. Our findings suggest that some members of the surgical team have insufficient knowledge about common operations to obtain properly informed consent from patients.
Aims This study aimed to identify how di ierent trusts in England were utilising lay involvement through their clinical governance committees. Method It considered the perspectives of both the trust and the lay members. Twenty-three clinical governance chairs and lay participants returned a questionnaire. Results This study found that the lay participants were far from representative of the local population in terms of socio-demographics and special interests, and highlighted dee ciencies in their recruitment and training. Conclusions The conclusions point to successful approaches that could be applied by trusts.