A patient is scheduled for surgery later in the day. The surgeon is very busy with another surgery and asks the nurse to obtain informed consent. How should the nurse proceed?

Explanation

•The physician involved in the surgery must explain the surgery to the patient and obtain written informed consent.

•A physician's assistant cannot obtain an informed consent, it must be the surgeon.

•RNs can only obtain informed consent if they have been specially trained to perform the procedure. Inserting a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) is an example of a situation where trained nurses obtain informed consent from the patient.

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