Consent to Medical Treatment

i am filling in Kinder forms and there is a 'declaration and consent to emergency medical treatment'

one part says - "i consent to the approved provider, nominated supervisor, certified supervisor or an educator... to seek medical treatment for the child from a registered medical practitioner, hospital or ambulance service and seek transportation of the child (by) an ambulance service."

i don't feel comfortable signing that blanket consent at this point. Am i just being paranoid, or are there others that would find this not so easy?

The other parts of the declaration, i agree with (agree to pick up if child gets sick, responsible for medical expenses, in emergency child may have to leave center under direction of educators....)

I sign it.
If my child fell off the play equipment and had a head injury, I'd prefer they call the ambulance while I'm trying to get there. I personally wouldn't want to take any risks.

But in an emergency, they wouldn't need my consent to call an ambulance.

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The small print on ours says that all efforts will be made to contact persons listed before making that decision..

But I also would much prefer them to seek medical assistance ASAP if it were needed. If I had any doubts about their ethics on seeking medical assistance, my kids wouldn't be going there.

I sign it.
I put my child's life in their hands, and they need my full support and the tools to deal with any eventuality. If that includes needing my consent to call an ambulance, then that's what they get.

What you have quoted is* only asking your consent to SEEK treatment, and the transport the child to said treatment facility. It is NOT asking you to consent to any medical procedures that would be performed by said medical practitioner.

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The small print on ours says that all efforts will be made to contact persons listed before making that decision..

But I also would much prefer them to seek medical assistance ASAP if it were needed. If I had any doubts about their ethics on seeking medical assistance, my kids wouldn't be going there.

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I would appreciate if that small print was on my form.
If i followed that philosophy, i would never let my kids out of my sight. I am not up for homeschooling, and so i do have to have a certain amount of trust in the care providers, but i'm not up for giving a blanket consent.

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But in an emergency, they wouldn't need my consent to call an ambulance.

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To me, this is what the form is asking? Permission to call an ambulance, in a emergency, perhaps BEFORE they contact you - ie the first call they make. I think they do need permission to call an ambulance and transport your child under any circumstances. I guess what constitutes an emergency is also subject to interpretation and this covers them from parents who then refuse to pay the ambulance bill by saying it was unnecessary and the childcare should pay?

I'm not sure why you think they wouldn't need consent for your child to leave the premises with someone other than yourself or a guardian (ie in an ambulance)? Why wouldn't they need consent if it was an emergency? :confused:

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I would appreciate if that small print was on my form.
If i followed that philosophy, i would never let my kids out of my sight. I am not up for homeschooling, and so i do have to have a certain amount of trust in the care providers, but i'm not up for giving a blanket consent.

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Ok, I must be naive, uneducated, ignorant (or maybe all 3) but I cannot understand what type of medical treatment you think they are going to seek if you sign the form. Even without the small print on ours, I would take it as what they need to do in an emergency, if my child was hurt or sudden onset of illness.

all the daycare centres, kindy program,schools I have ever had anything to do with are there to educate and/or care children in a caring and nurturing and safe environment. It is not their aim, nor do they have the resources to go and seek unwarranted medical treatments.

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I'm not sure why you think they wouldn't need consent for your child to leave the premises with someone other than yourself or a guardian (ie in an ambulance)? Why wouldn't they need consent if it was an emergency? :puzzled:

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i thought they would be covered under something like 'good samaritan act'. if an adult is physically unable to consent (ie unconscious), then an ambulance can transport them (and perform some medical procedures) without gaining consent.

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i am filling in Kinder forms and there is a 'declaration and consent to emergency medical treatment'

one part says - "i consent to the approved provider, nominated supervisor, certified supervisor or an educator... to seek medical treatment for the child from a registered medical practitioner, hospital or ambulance service and seek transportation of the child (by) an ambulance service."

i don't feel comfortable signing that blanket consent at this point. Am i just being paranoid, or are there others that would find this not so easy?

The other parts of the declaration, i agree with (agree to pick up if child gets sick, responsible for medical expenses, in emergency child may have to leave center under direction of educators....)

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It's blanket consent for the reason that in an emergency, the staff will need to do what is deemed necessary to possibly save your child's life in a very extreme circumstance. I've never had a parent refuse consent, I would imagine we would refuse an enrolment in such a case as it's not safe for us as staff.
If your child had a serious injury and I needed to call an ambulance, that is what I would do, if you as a parent didn't give me that permission, I would not want to be responsible for caring for your child as what exactly do I do to help him in an emergency situation? I can call the parent, but if it were life threatening, what's time frame of you coming or giving permission over the phone? What if you don't answer? Do I then go to the next emergency contact, nope that's not how it works.
You also need to consider that in an emergency, the priority is 1. the child injured and 2. the other children in our care. Wasting time trying to get permission at the time of an emergency would be negligent to more than just the injured child.

To clarify, medical consent most often would mean calling and ambulance and staff travelling with the child to the hospital if the parent had not arrived to accompany them, themselves. Obviously once you go to hospital, a medical practitioner would attend. Majority of childcare educators are first aid qualified, so any other medical treatment would be well covered by their training.

Have you asked them for clarification? Often these forms are part of legalities and accreditation. They need to ask, but it is pretty rare for them to act on it.

In an emergency I would much rather they call the ambulance, than try to call me or DH first and as care providers I trust them to make that call.

I think the consent is less about what the ambulance/doctor/hospital can do, and more about whether the childcare centre is allowed to initiate the seeking of the ambulance/doctor/hospital on behalf of the child's parent/guardian in your absence.

I for one have had the occasional situation where the carer/school were not able to contact me immediately, (but thankfully never any dire emergency). I would not want the centre to be waiting until they have spoken to me to decide to call an ambulance if an ambulance was needed straight away. I sign the consent.

Perhaps if it said "in an emergency" at the end of the statement i wouldn't be questioning it. There is a number to ring to get clarification.

Thanks

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Again, the form you are signing is asking consent to SEEK treatment and to allow the child to be TRANSPORTED to said medical treatment.

It is NOT asking your consent for any medical procedures or treatment that the doctor would perform.

There is a difference.

When you start adding in wording such as "in an emergency" that then requires someone to determine what an emergency is. Unfortunately a lot of this stuff is all about what is legal 'jargon'.
The other thing is, it won't always be an emergency when medical treatment is needed - any injury that you bandage, etc is needing medical treatment.

ETA to say I agree with LS's last comment.