How to Create a Consent Form on Google Forms?

Digital information systems have been on the rise for quite some time. We need to be able to tackle our situations accordingly. Consent forms have been in use from several centuries for several aspects of life. Consent forms are used in medical institutions, law, technology, finance, Educational institutions, research and government institutions as well as many more. We can use consent forms in a wide variety of scenarios.

Today, we will learn how to make a consent form on Google Forms but first we have to understand what consent form is.

What is a consent form?

A consent form is a type of document that gives permission from individual or group called consentee to another person or group called consenter to perform specific actions. After receiving permission, the consenter will be free of liability outside of negligence. These types of documents are signed in various scenarios of several aspects of life such as healthcare, research, law, finance and technology. There are even more uses. In healthcare terms, it’s a document that’s signed in order to proceed with a procedure that may threaten life itself. 

Why do we need a consent form?

A consent form is used in many departments for various purposes. It is used in healthcare to obtain permission of individuals about medical procedures, clinical trials or genetic testing. It also includes information on possible risks and benefits. If a person wishes to take part in above mentioned tests, he or she has to give permission on official consent form. The primary purpose of a consent form is to provide evidence that a patient gave their consent for procedure or trial.

In other departments, consent form doesn’t change much but the information, risks and benefits change according to scenario. There are various types of consent forms that can be used according to scenario, it can be explicit, implied, opt-out, active and passive.

How to Create a Consent Form on Google Forms?

We will be taking the above example of healthcare and making a consent form for medical reasons. Before we start making the form, we have to go through the process of login or create a google account. Google account is the prerequisite for using google services and tools.

Login into Google Account

Google Forms can’t be made without having a Google account. When we go to Google Forms, we are received by the panel to try Google Forms for work or to go to forms, whichever option we pick will prompt us to login or create a new google account.

We already have a Google account so we will login by going to forms.

It will prompt us to login (shown below), if we are logged into the browser already we will proceed to form. We can login by entering our email and password in the given textbox to login.
 

If we are already logged in, we can confirm  our account from the top right corner where it shows a display profile. We can switch accounts if we are logged into a personal account or something else.

Design the Form

Once we are logged in, we will be welcomed with the Google Forms panel, from here we can select our designed forms or we can choose templates. We can also make a blank form to make the form according to our needs and requirements. Let’s proceed with a blank form.

We will add title to the form and add required questions. We will start by taking the patient’s personal information.

Here, we divided the form in sections to take different types of information at different screens. After patient information comes the emergency contact information.

Consent Section in Google Form

Now the last and most important part of consent form which deals with consent and acknowledgement. We can make another section for it.

File upload question for medical reports is a good go for evidence perspectives. We can show it to authorities in case of any mishap. 

Add required add-ons for signature

One of the most important parts of consent form is signature from the consentee, signature is still not added in our Google Form. Google Form doesn’t support the signatures by itself and we need to get the signatures of consent to provide treatment and healthcare. We can add an add-on in such situations. Let’s add an add-on for signature in google.

We can add add-ons from three dots icon on top right corner of form window as:

From here, we can proceed to add-on market as:

Add-on markets have a wide variety of add-ons, sometimes our required add-ons will be at the forefront, sometimes we will have to search them. We will search for a signature which we want to add.

We can use any add-on that can perform our desired functionality. We’ll choose “signature”, it’s totally up to us to choose but we must make sure it performs our desired function before buying it or installing it.

From here, we can install the add-on here but before installing add-on, we should see whether it works with our tool which is Google Form. It’s also written in the add-on description.

Once we click install, it will ask us for our consent whether we are agreeing to its terms and conditions for using this add-on.

Once we continue, it will be installed. We are already logged in so it’s not a problem to install, sometimes when users open forms from incognito mode, Google Forms will ask again to login. There are still some settings left to set up signatures.
 

Set up signatures using the add-on

We will now need to set up the add-on with our form, to open the add-on, we need to click on the puzzle piece icon.

This icon will show us a list of add-ons that have been installed on our account that works with Google Form. From here, we can select the desired add-on and add its functionality which is signature in our case now.

Let us set-up the add-on for desired functionality.
Once we have added the add-on, we need to set it up for being functional with our form. When we open the add-on, it will ask us whether we want to open it or go to the help section.

Starting the add-on will start the required functionality on that form, where it’s started. We have to set up add-ons for every form separately. Now we will focus on add-on.
 

We can set up the signature on this form after we login to this add-on , it’s not complicated at all. It’s just to check our membership. We will go for multiple signatures because we will need different patients.

We can set the limit of signatures per form and we can also password protect these signatures so that they won’t be misused by anyone else. We set the limit of signatures to 2 because we have information for 2 individuals. One is the patient and the other one is a family member or emergency contact.

Once we submit these settings to add-on, it will prompt us for confirmation.

This add-on will need to save signatures so it will be requiring Google Spreadsheet to function. we can add a spreadsheet from the responses tab.

In the response tab, we can find a link to the sheet button and press it to add responses to a spreadsheet automatically. We can create new spreadsheets or we can also choose existing spreadsheets as well.

Once we are done with making spreadsheets, we can go back to add-on and confirm again. Most of the time, there are no errors but sometimes add-ons are not compatible with file upload type questions. You can make another form for medical history and use a simpler form for consent.

As you can see from the above screenshot, we need to use this link and share it with our audience because they need to sign the form with this add-on. Normal method for sharing the form will not allow our audience to give a signature. We will test it in our next step.

Test your form before sharing with audience

Testing is always the most crucial part for forms, surveys and questionnaires. We should always test our form before sharing It with our desired audience. We copied the link to this form from the add-on, let’s test that link and see if we can add a signature (I’ll pass all fields and directly go to the signature field).

We can give a signature from the above button.

Now, we can see:

Once we have given signatures, we can continue and add another signature if needed or we can continue and continue to proceed.

Now we will need to copy the code and paste it in the signature text field of form. it  will enable us to add our signature through Google Form.

After pasting the copied link, we can return to the form and submit the form.

Now our form is complete and tested, we can go ahead and share the form with the desired patient or his or her family to get the consent for treatment.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Google Forms a Better Option Than SurveyMonkey for Creating Consent Forms?

When it comes to creating consent forms, the choice between google forms vs surveymonkey depends on your specific needs. Google Forms offers a simple and user-friendly interface, making it a great option for beginners. On the other hand, SurveyMonkey provides more advanced features and customization options which may be preferred by those requiring more complex consent forms. Ultimately, it’s essential to assess your requirements and find the platform that best meets your needs.

Can I Use Google Forms to Make a Public Consent Form?

Yes, you can utilize Google Forms to create a public consent form. By setting up the appropriate sharing settings, you can ensure google form public access. This allows anyone with the link to access and fill out the consent form, making it convenient for gathering public consent for various purposes.

Conclusion

In this article, we discussed how to create a consent form for medical purposes. We also added a slot to add signatures to the Google Form using add-on. We also studied the following in the above article:

• Login to the Google Account
• Design the Google Form
• Consent Section in Google Form
• Add required add-ons for signature
• Set up signatures using the add on
• Test the form before sharing the form

Thanks for reading!