A person can only give voluntary consent for a healthcare treatment, procedure or other intervention after they have received accurate information. Essentially, this is informed consent. Ensuring informed consent is properly obtained is a legal, ethical and professional obligation on the part of all treating health professionals, and supports person-centred care.

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• Summarise the concepts of informed consent and implied consent
• Demonstrate the language required to gain informed consent from patients/guardians
• Apply ethical decision-making strategies where informed consent is not possible
• Apply decision-making strategies to determine the capacity of a patient/guardian
• Interpret law regarding the consent for treatment of a minor.