Consent for upper GI endoscopy station

Consent stations test whether you can give a patient the information they need to make a genuine decision — not just get a signature. The examiner is watching for valid consent: capacity, sufficient information, and a voluntary choice.

How to structure it

• Establish what the patient already understands and why the procedure is proposed.
• Explain the procedure in plain language, including sedation or throat-spray options.
• Cover the benefits, the common effects, and the serious risks honestly and proportionately.
• Offer the alternatives, including doing nothing, and check capacity and voluntariness.
• Invite questions and confirm understanding before concluding.

Common pitfalls

• Reciting a risk list without checking the patient is following.
• Glossing over serious risks, or alternatively frightening the patient with them.
• Forgetting to confirm the decision is the patient’s own and freely made.

Examiners reward jargon-free, balanced information, genuine checking of understanding, and a clearly voluntary, informed decision.