James chats to Georgie Haysom and Jane Ingham about consent and the medicolegal perspective on obtaining informed consent as a Junior Doctor with a shared decision-making approach.
Summary Writer: Emily Qian
Script Writers: Georgie Haysom & Jane Ingham
Editor: Georgie Haysom
Interviewees: Georgie Haysom & Jane Ingham
Georgie Haysom (BSC, LLB (Hons)), LLM (Bioethics) is the Head of Advocacy at Avant, Australia’s largest medical defence organisation, and in that role works to improve the legislative and regulatory environment for members and the healthcare system as a whole.
She has worked in health law for nearly 25 years, assisting and advising doctors on a wide range of medicolegal issues, including several years representing doctors in medical negligence litigation. Georgie has a long-standing interest in the interaction between law, medicine and ethics, and the way in which the law impacts on medical practice. She has a Bachelor of Science (Pharmacology), Bachelor of Laws (Hons 1) from the University of Sydney and a Master of Laws specialising in bioethics from McGill University.
Jane is a Senior Medical Advisor in Avant’s research, education and advocacy team.
Jane is a physician with specialty training in palliative medicine. Over many years she has been extensively involved in clinical palliative care, education, quality improvement and research. In addition to working at Avant, she currently holds the position of Associate Director of Clinical Governance – Advance Care Planning St Vincent’s Health Network Sydney. In this, and various other roles, Jane has been responsible for quality improvement and educational activities – working with medical students, residents, nurses and allied health professionals, and with senior hospital and community clinicians from a wide array of medical and surgical specialty areas.
Jane holds academic appointments at UNSW Sydney in Medicine at the St Vincent’s Clinical School, and at the School of Medicine, University of Notre Dame, Sydney Campus and is actively involved in teaching and the supervision of research.
With Georgie Haysom, Head of Research, Education and Advocacy (Avant) and Dr Jane Ingham, Palliative Care Specialist, Senior Medical Advisor (Avant)
Obtaining patient consent is a commonly required practice for all doctors at some stage in their career. Although specific hospital guidelines determine the minimum level of training required to engage in the consent discussion, there are times when junior doctors may be required to obtain consent. This process requires a patient-centred approach as well as sound communication skills to allow an open and thorough discussion which will inform patients of their management options in the context of their values.
Georgie Haysom, the Head of Research, Education and Advocacy of Avant and Dr Jane Ingham, a palliative care physician and Senior Medical Advisor at Avant explore the important medico-legal aspects of obtaining consent. They focus on junior doctors’ role in the process and some case examples commonly encountered by young doctors.
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