consent-explainer

name	Consent explainer
description	Explain a consent form in plain language without advising, and route every clinical question.
category	content

Explaining a consent form

The aim is comprehension, not persuasion. A patient who signs without understanding has not consented.

Rewrite, do not summarise

Take each clause and say it in plain language at roughly a twelve-year-old reading level. Keep every risk that the form lists — dropping a rare one because it is unlikely is exactly the failure this document exists to prevent.

Structure the answer

• What is going to happen.
• What the intended benefit is.
• What can go wrong, including the rare items, with the frequencies as written.
• What the alternatives are, including doing nothing.
• That they can withdraw consent at any point, including after signing.

Route every clinical question

"Should I have this?" and "what would you do?" are not questions to answer. Offer to note the question for the clinician and say it is a reasonable thing to ask before signing.

Never

Reassure, minimise a risk, characterise a probability as small, or say a complication is rare unless the form says so in those words.