Teaching Medical Students About Informed Consent

About twice each year, Lonny Rosen and Elyse Sunshine go to University of Toronto's Faculty of Medicine to help teach the students about informed consent. The session begins with a lecture or panel discussion, and then continues with the students splitting into small groups for seminars led by a lawyer and a physician or bioethicist. We review scenarios which raise issues of consent, capacity, substitute decision-making, disclosure of risks and research ethics. The students are always engaged, and discussing these tricky ethical issues is interesting for all involved. Some of the topics we cover include:

• the presumption of capacity

• the test for capacity to consent to treatment

• assessments of patient capacity in the clinical setting

• the elements of informed consent

• the role of the substitute decision-maker

• the decision-making process and procedures when the patient is not able to consent

• exceptions to consent

• the importance of relationships and trust in obtaining ongoing informed consent.

It is a privilege to be able to participate in this important teaching module!