Patient Informed Consent Awareness form in Public Hospitals of Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

In Pakistan hospitals, it is generally observed that informed consent is not obtained, or they are not provided with enough
explanations about the forthcoming processes and their future consequences by the healthcare teams. The purposes of this study
was to explore patient’s perception of informed-consent in hospitals of Punjab. It was an exploratory study. A total of 120 patients
(84male, 36 female) were included in this study. The patients were selected from public hospitals of Punjab after taking informed
consent. A pre- designed and pre-structured validated questionnaire was used for data collection from patients who went through
surgical/medical procedures. The data was analyzed through SPSS version 20. Results: In this study, 70% male and 30% female
participants with different age groups have participated. Frequency analysis of each question was done to check the response
against each statement. The results of independent sample t-test show that there is insignificant difference between male and
female groups regarding the understanding level, scope, values and function toward patient informed consent. There is lack of
awareness about legal implications of signing or not signing of the informed consent among Patients in Punjab. It is concluded
that most of the clinical settings in Pakistan are unaware of importance to obtain informed consent when practicing the workplace
environment. It should be emphasized that there would be a need to develop an educational program towards inform consent and
further reassessed in order to achieve patient autonomy. The studies should be carried out in other provinces of Pakistan to check
that all the workplace environment are following informed consent practices in the workplace