The challenges for nurses communicating with and gaining valid consent from adults with intellectual disabilities within the accident and emergency care service

Abstract

Aim: This paper reports the challenges experienced by nurses within accident and emergency departments in communicating with and gaining valid consent from adults with intellectual disabilities.

Background: Consent is both a legal requirement and an ethical principle required to be obtained by health-care professionals, prior to the start of any examination, treatment and/or care. Central to the process of seeking consent is effective communication. However, evidence shows that people with intellectual disabilities are not viewed by professionals within acute general hospitals as a vital source of information, neither are they often communicated with directly, nor involved in discussions or decisions about their health care and are frequently not directly asked for their consent.

Method: A purposive sample of nurses working within the accident and emergency departments of five general hospitals was recruited to participate in this qualitative study. Data were collected from five focus groups.

Findings: Effective communication was identified as the most challenging aspect in caring for adults with intellectual disabilities within this environment, having an impact on the assessment of needs, informing patients of their health status and seeking valid consent.

Conclusions: Fundamental to the provision of quality care are the concepts communication, choice and control. However, these issues are perceived to be more challenging in the provision of health care to people with intellectual disabilities. Communication and consent, therefore, require further consideration within the educational and clinical areas to strengthen nurses' competence in caring for people with intellectual disabilities, with an emphasis and understanding that choice and control are key principles for all people, being central aspects to the provision of an inclusive service for people with intellectual disabilities.

Relevance to clinical practice: All nurses need to have a greater awareness of learning disability, how to increase opportunities for effective communication and be very familiar with the issue and guidelines relating to consent, to ensure that people with learning disabilities have choice, control and are more active in decision making regarding their health.