Chapter 4- Legal Aspects of Nursing

List sources of law and types of laws.

* Constitutions, Statutes, administrative agencies, common law. * Public law, and private or civil law.

Discuss the impaired nurse and available diversion of peer assistance programs

+ nurse's inability to perform essential job functions bc of chemical dependency on drugs or alcohol or mental illness +Intervention Project for Nurses (IPN) provides intervention and close monitoring and advocacy for impaired nurses. Require counseling and participation in support groups with progress reports.

Describe the purpose of the Americans with disability act

+ provide a clear & comprehensive national mandate for eliminating discrimination against indiv with disabilities. + provide clear, strong, consistent, enforceable standards addressing discrimination against indiv with disabilities + ensure federal government plays a central role in enforcing standards established under the act.

Describe the four specific areas of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and their impact on nursing practice

1. electronic transfer of info among organizations. 2. Standardized numbers for identifying providers, employers, and health plans. 3. The security rule provides for a uniform level of protection of all health information. 4. The privacy rule sets standards defining appropriate disclosure of protected health information

Delineate the elements of professional negligence

1. Duty: Nurse must have relationship with the client that involves providing care. 2. Breach of duty: There must be a standard of care that is expected in the specific situation but that the nurse did not observe. 3. Foreseeability: A link must exist between the nurse's act and the injury suffered. 4. Causation: It must be proved that the harm occurred as a direct result of the nurse's failure to follow the standard of care and that the nurse could have known that failure to follow the standard of care could result in such harm. 5. Harm/injury: Client must demonstrate some type of harm or injury as a result of the breach of duty owed the client. 6. Damages. If professional negligence causes injury, nurse is held liable for for compensating damages. Goal of awarding damages is to assist injured party to their original position as far as financial possibility.

Compare and contrast intentional torts (Assault/battery, false imprisonment, invasion of privacy,defamation) and unintentional torts (professional negligence)

1. intentional torts the defendant executed the act on purpose or with intent.No harm need be caused for liability to exist. 2. unintentional torts do not require intent but do require the element of harm.

Describe the laws and strategies that protect the nurse from litigation

Good Samaritan Acts, Liability insurance, Carrying out physicians orders, provide competent nursing care, documentation, incident report.

Discuss the legal responsibilities of nursing students.

Responsible for their own actions and liable for their own acts of negligence committed during the course of clinicals. Legally held to the same standard of skill and competence as a RN.

Discriminate between negligence and professional negligence/malpractice

Negligence: misconduct or practice that is below the standard expected of an ordinary, reasonable, and prudent person. Malpractice: negligence that occurred while the person was performing as a professional.

Compare and contrast the state-based licensure model and the mutual recognition model for multistate licensure.

State-based: when a nurse who electronically interacts with a client in another state to provide health info is practicing across state lines without a license in other state Mutual: Allows for multistate licensure. Each state has to enter an interstate compact,NLC.

Describe ways nurse practice acts, credentialing, standards of care, and agency policies and procedures affect the scope of nursing practice.

maintain competence in nursing,maintains standards in of practice and accountability,legally control nursing practice

Describe the purpose and essential elements of informed consent

mutual decision making between both professional and patient over the treatment option that patient wishes to receive or not to receive. Elements: Consent given voluntarily, consent given by client with capacity and competence to understand, and client must be given enough information to be decision maker.