1. Essay Preparation
Assessment 3

2. A question to guide your essay
Why are health care professionals required to gain consent/ assent before providing treatment and care?

3. Using the following sub-headings, discuss consent
Essay plan
Using the following sub-headings, discuss consent

4. I Introduction
Introduce your essay by defining your topic (consent)
Tell the marker how you will construct your essay – what you will describe, discuss and argue

5. II First Sub-Heading
Discuss national and international ethical frameworks for health care that influence ethical decision making re: consent
Ethical frameworks can include: UDHR, Helsinki Declaration, and/or Beauchamp & Childress Principles of health care ethics (how and why do they hold a place of importance for the notion of consent?)

6. III Second Sub-Heading
Apply ethical normative frameworks that a health professional may appeal to in explaining the importance of consent to care and treatment… which means
Compare 2 different ethical theories that guide ethical decision-making in regard to consent, e.g. …

7. The Utilitarian Approach (re: consent
The Utilitarian Approach (re: consent. Remember … no account of rights in this approach)
The Deontology Approach (consent very important, especially see Kant)
Libertarianism (rights very important in this theory)

8. Iii third sub-heading
Discuss your own code of ethics. Identify if it offers any guidance regarding consent &, if so, what does it say? On what ethical grounding does it base the significance of consent?
If your profession does not have a code of ethics yet, can you identify another code of ethics that would be helpful in your own profession?

9. Iv fourth sub-heading
Differentiate between ethical and legal issues in health care in gaining consent from vulnerable patient cohorts
From your research, compare your own profession’s requirements for consent with the medical profession (see, e.g. Kerridge et al)

10. Discuss the law of consent (it is a legal concept after all). See, e.g., Kerridge et al
Discuss any ethical principles or concepts that inform this law, e.g. respect for human dignity, human rights, professional humility, (hcp’s do not always know what is good for the patient) protection of the vulnerable, honesty
You could refer to the taped interviews (on LEO) to illustrate your points (see how to reference these interviews on last slide)

11. CONSIDER: Patient’s competence to consent
Patient’s understanding of the benefits & risks of intervention & of non-intervention
If incapacitated, the role and responsibilities of a patient’s surrogate
Has the patient provided advance directives?

12. Cont’d … Is the patient’s reasonable refusal of treatment respected?
Are there any possible/ identifiable conflicts of interest at issue? If so, what are they and how do you think they could be resolved?

13. Cont’d …
The act of consent is necessary, legally. However, is it sufficient for ensuring that a patient has been treated properly?
Cultural differences re: decision-making responsibilities (individual patient vs family member)
Beneficence vs respect for patient autonomy (RPA)
Duty of care vs RPA
Patient’s right to refuse care vs community’s need for safety & protection

14. v fifth Sub-Heading
Identify social and spiritual factors that influence the health professional’s values and beliefs in ethical decision making

15. Some suggestions Cultural norms vs legal requirements
The legal requirement of consent vs the ethical nature of what is consented to
e.g. if a patient consents to a procedure which a hcp does not wish to be implicated in – e.g. euthanasia, organ transplantation, live organ transplantation, performance enhancing substances … - does the patient’s consent impose a duty on that hcp to provide that procedure?

16. Vi CONCLUSION Briefly sum up your discussion
Did you do what you said you were going to do in the intro?
If not, go back and change the introduction
No new material to be added in the conclusion

17. BEFORE SUBMITTING YOUR PAPER:
WORK THROUGH OLIVIA UNITE’S ESSAY CHECKLIST (see in Assessments folder on LEO)

18. Please note:
The ideas listed under the sub- headings are suggestions only. You may well have other thoughts in regard to what the essay headings require.
You are not required to employ all (or even most) of these ideas in your essay if you want to tackle the topic differently

19. How to reference interviews on your reference list
Roscoe, D. (2014). Interview for HLSC 220 health care ethics assessment #3 – paramedicine. Retrieved from
Danks, M. (2014). Interview for HLSC 220 health care ethics assessment #3 - physiotherapy. Retrieved from
Morrow, J. (2014). Interview for HLSC 220 health care ethics assessment #3 - midwifery. Retrieved from
Berg, N. (2014). Interview for HLSC 220 health care ethics assessment #3 – speech pathology. Retrieved from
Gale, P.L. (2014). Interview for HLSC 220 health care ethics assessment #3 - nursing. Retrieved from
Taylor, M. (2014). Interview for HLSC 220 health care ethics assessment #3 – public health. Retrieved from
NB: Don’t forget to double space and indent second and subsequent lines

20. EXAMPLE OF HOW TO REFERENCE interviews IN-TEXT
Roscoe (2014) states....
If you paraphrase a quote from an interview, place the reference at the end of the paraphrase, e.g. (Roscoe, 2014)

21. Tips on essay writing

22. Always provide Page number on each page 1.5 spacing Size 11 font
Name & student number in footer on each page
Use APA referencing style
Staple pages together

23. Writing style
Avoid monotony and try to use alternatives to states, such as:
implies, argues, predicts, concludes, discusses, describes, reviews, compares, questions, espouses, explains, explores, depicts, structures, proposes, purports etc.
Write in the 3rd person (objective approach)
Pay careful attention to grammar/ spelling

24. Writing your introduction:  
This essay/paper/assignment discusses /explores/ argues that/ explains/ implies/ describes/… the issues/ points of view/ aspects of/ ..….. Using the various points of view from the literature….concerning….
The essay starts/begins by/ firstly discusses/ describing/ identifying/ depicting…. The issues/ ideas/ understanding… it then considers…and concludes by…..

25. Essay structure Half a page (max) for the Introduction
Half a page (max) for the Conclusion
3 paragraphs on each page
about 15 paragraphs in total
5 pages of text in total
1 Separate page for your References