Paper: Patients in Taiwan Expect Family Involvement during the Elective Surgical Informed Consent Process (Sigma Theta Tau International's 21st International Nursing Research Congress)

Tuesday, 13 July 2010: 2:25 PM

Mei-Ling Lin, MSN, RN
Institute of Allied Health Sciences, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, Tainan, Taiwan
Ching-Huey Chen, PhD, RN
Institute of Allied Health Sciences, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan

Learning Objective 1: stand on different point of view of autonomy under the understanding of different cultures.

Learning Objective 2: allow a more flexible approach to individual patient needs and different clinical contexts.

Purpose: Informed consent derives from respect for autonomy, which implies that patients have rights to know their illnesses and decisions in treatment. Under the Chinese social context, family involvement in the medical decision is indispensable. This study was to investigate elective surgery patients’ perception and expectation of their family involvement during the informed consent process.

Methods: An anonymous questionnaire was mailed to individual recipients who underwent surgery and were discharged within 4 mouths from a hospital in South Taiwan (n = 1732). Emergency surgery patients were excluded. The questionnaire included demographic data and 7 items related to the informed consent process of a surgery, which was developed by the researchers based on the standardized informed consent form by Ministry of Health in Taiwan. The recipients were requested to report their perception and expectation of their family involvement levels through a four point Likert-scale.

Results: In total, 143 recipients replied (response rate 8.3%). Among them, 119 completed the questionnaire and were included in data analysis. The mean age was 56.03 (SD=14.98, range 20–85) years. There were 53.8% women and 46.2% men. Patient involvement (Mean=3.54, SD=.73) in the whole informed consent process was significantly higher than perceived family involvement (Mean=3.06 SD=.98) (t=4.494, p<.000). Patients expected family involvement (Mean=3.33, SD=.92) was significantly higher than perceived family involvement (Mean=3.06 SD=.98) (t=-4.784, p<.000). The subjects reported more threat by surgery, expect that they and their family are informed, and less understanding of the surgical information indicated their desire for a higher expectation in family involvement during their informed consent process.

Conclusion:

This study serves as a reference to medical professionals in understanding the patient expectation during the informed consent process and allows a more flexible approach to individual patient needs and different clinical contexts.

See more of: Involving Family in Healthcare Decisions
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