Knowledge, Practices, and Barriers Related to Informed Consent Among Postgraduate Medical and Surgical Residents in Peshawar
Informed Consent Knowledge and Practices Among Residents
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54393/pjhs.v7i6.3891Keywords:
Informed Consent, Postgraduate Residents, Knowledge, Safety Practice, Barriers, Ethics, Training, Language Barriers, Decision CapacityAbstract
Informed Consent is well-established and standard protocol in clinical practice, ensuring that patients are autonomous in making decisions and know about the benefits, risks, and alternatives to the procedure. Objectives: To determine the knowledge, practices, and barriers of informed consent among medical and surgical postgraduate residents of the tertiary care hospitals in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan. Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted from June 2025 to August 2025 among 294 medical and surgical postgraduate residents in public and private hospitals in Peshawar through a self-structured questionnaire, using convenience sampling, and analyzed by SPSS version 27.0. Results: 65% of postgraduate residents were aware of informed consent, especially legal requirements and ethical principal 92.9% and 91.8% respectively, while lower for assessing decision capacity (36.7%) and voluntariness (21.4%). Practice levels were lower than the knowledge level, despite the frequent use of standardized forms and verification of understanding. Language barriers (74.1%) and time constraints (58.5%) were key obstacles in obtaining informed consent. Knowledge and practice significantly correlated with gender, hospital, and department (p<0.001), but not age. Barriers showed no significant associations with department or training year. Conclusions: Regardless of the high knowledge of informed consent among residents, it was moderately practiced in hospitals, with a weakness in assessing decision-making and voluntariness. Language barriers and time constraints embarrass the practice of informed consent. Structured training and barrier mitigation could bridge this knowledge-practice gap and strengthen the practice of informed consent.
Informed Consent is well-established and standard protocol in clinical practice, ensuring that patients are autonomous in making decisions and know about the benefits, risks, and alternatives to the procedure. Objectives: To determine the knowledge, practices, and barriers of informed consent among medical and surgical postgraduate residents of the tertiary care hospitals in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan. Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted from June 2025 to August 2025 among 294 medical and surgical postgraduate residents in public and private hospitals in Peshawar through a self-structured questionnaire, using convenience sampling, and analyzed by SPSS version 27.0. Results: 65% of postgraduate residents were aware of informed consent, especially legal requirements and ethical principal 92.9% and 91.8% respectively, while lower for assessing decision capacity (36.7%) and voluntariness (21.4%). Practice levels were lower than the knowledge level, despite the frequent use of standardized forms and verification of understanding. Language barriers (74.1%) and time constraints (58.5%) were key obstacles in obtaining informed consent. Knowledge and practice significantly correlated with gender, hospital, and department (p<0.001), but not age. Barriers showed no significant associations with department or training year. Conclusions: Regardless of the high knowledge of informed consent among residents, it was moderately practiced in hospitals, with a weakness in assessing decision-making and voluntariness. Language barriers and time constraints embarrass the practice of informed consent. Structured training and barrier mitigation could bridge this knowledge-practice gap and strengthen the practice of informed consent.
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