Radiology residents who participated in an informed consent training program reported improvements in their confidence and ability to properly obtain patient consent, going as far as to recommend the curriculum to future trainees.
Informed consent is an integral part of patient care and clinical workflow, and radiologists (interventional radiologists, in particular) often must gain consent in their day-to-day. The process is often a relatively simple step prior to completing a procedure, but any missing or misleading elements can result in both medical (for the patient) and legal (for the radiologist) ramifications.
“The benefits of a properly obtained informed consent have been well documented but consenting continues to be a skill that is often poorly taught and incompletely executed,” corresponding author Alexandra H.Fairchild, MD, with Louisiana State University Health Science Center, and co-authors explained Jan. 5.
The authors of a new study published in Academic Radiology sought to analyze how a structured curriculum pertaining to acquiring informed consent might benefit radiology residents. As part of their curriculum, they included an informed consent checklist proposed by previous researchers.
The program was completed by 21 radiology residents, half of whom reported some form of previous consent training. For the first part of the program, residents were tasked with obtaining consent for a procedure from a standard patient (SP). Attending radiologists then rated the residents’ efforts on a 20-point scoring system. The SPs also scored the encounters for consent-related questions.
After their first encounter, residents received additional consent training in the form of reading material and lectures. They were also each given a pocket checklist card before completing a post-training SP encounter, which they were again scored on.
Before the intervention, attendings and SPs scored the residents at an average of 9.29 out of 20. After the curriculum was completed, those scores rose to 16.95 out of 20, a 7.66-point increase.
“The utilization of the checklist provided a framework around which the curriculum can be structured, enabling the creation of a standardized approach to the training,” the doctors noted.
Given the success of their study, and the lack of current structured informed consent training, the doctors recommend implementing such a curriculum in radiology residency programs.
In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She joined Innovate Healthcare in 2021 and has since put her unique expertise to use in her editorial role with Health Imaging.