I have recently returned from the 1992 AANA Annual Meeting. During the intermission, I talked to a CRNA from Nebraska about some of the issues raised by the program. Our conversation turned to the subject of informed consent.
Informed consent is a fundamental right of any surgical patient.
It is almost always found in any draft of a patient's fundamental rights. It is good, it is absolute, and everyone agrees that no patient should be deprived of it. However, as the CRNA explained to me, even for so fundamental a right, there can remain questions of the application of that right in particular circumstances. The fundamental principle of informed consent is relatively clear. Informed consent has been in the news lately.