Obtaining informed consent from patients hospitalized in the surgical wards as a major legal challenge

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Informed consent (IC) is the process of establishing communication between the physician and the patient or an alternative decision that leads to the agreement or rejection of the patient and/or their legal representative to perform specific medical procedures. In this study, we evaluated the level of awareness and patient participation in IC in the surgical wards of the general hospital in northern Iran in the 2019–2020 years. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study is cross-sectional research that was performed during the 2019–2020 years. The statistical population includes patients admitted to the surgical wards of the general hospital in northern Iran in 2019–2020. The Cochran's formula was used to determine the sample size and the statistical sample size was 385 patients. The sampling method is stratified random. The method of data collection was through questionnaire tools. The software used was SPSS 21 with an independent t-test and one-way ANOVA. RESULTS: Our data showed that the frequency of men was significantly higher (P < 0.001). Individuals with a higher education group have a significantly higher level of awareness (P < 0.001). The Pearson's Correlation (PC) test showed that there was no significant correlation between age and patients' awareness score (PC = -0.007, P = 0.887). CONCLUSION: The current study showed that individuals with higher education had a significantly higher level of awareness, and there was no significant correlation between age and patients' awareness score. Therefore, senior university administrators are suggested to improve IC processes in accordance with the patients' rights charter and internationally accredited standards, and assist health care providers with legal implications in the courts.