Chapter 7: Legal Dimensions of Nursing Practice

What governing body has the authority to revoke or suspend a nurse's license

The State Board of Nurse examiners

Which is an example of an unintentional tort?

A nurse gives a client a medication, and the client has an adverse reaction to it

What scenario is an example of certification?

A nurse who demonstrates advanced expertise in a content area of nursing through special testing

A client is in a persistent vegetative state. The client has no immediate family and is a ward of the state. Under these circumstances, who will speak on this client's behalf?

A surrogate decision maker

A legal document that states a client's health related wishes- such as a preference to pain management if the client becomes terminally ill- and also allows the client's adult child to direct client care is?

An advance directive

An RN enters a client's room and observes the unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP) forcefully pushing the client down the bed. The client starts crying and informs the UAP of the need to go to the bathroom. What action is the RN witnessing that should be immediately be reported to the supervisor?

Battery

A voluntary process whereby a person who has met criteria established by a nongovernmental association is granted special recognition in a specified practice area.

Certification

While a client admitted to the medical-surgical unit in the radiology department, a visitor claiming to be the client's cousin arrives on the medical-surgical unit and asks the nurse to provide a brief outline of the client's illness. Which response by the nurse would be most appropriate, both legally and professionally?

I cannot give you that information due to client confidentiality

When talking with family over dinner, the nurse shares about a client with infertility at the hospital, identifying the person by name. Which tort has the nurse committed?

Invasion of privacy

When the nurse informs a client's employer of the client's autoimmune deficiency disease, the nurse is committing tort of?

Invasion of privacy

Are developed by a legislature and are implemented by authority granted by the state to determine the minimum standards for the education of nurses, to set requirements for licensure or registration, and to decide when a nurse's license may be suspended or revoked. Examples of these include state nurse practice acts and rules and regulations of nursing.

Legal standards

A client informs the nurse that the client wants to discontinue treatment and go home. Later, the nurse finds the client dressed to leave. Which action should the nurse take in this situation?

Let the client go after signing a document stating that the client is going against medical advice

Granted by the state to a graduate of a nursing education program who passes NCLEX-RN

Licensure

A client has a prescription for amoxicillin 500 mg P.O. Every 8 hours. The nurse administers the medication via the intravenous route. Based on the nurse's action, the client develops complications and has an increased length of stay. The client files a lawsuit against the facility and the nurse. Which legal action has the nurse's attorney identified that meets the criteria for the client's lawsuit?

Malpractice

By the way of opening or oral administration

P.O.

During the admission assessment of a client with a suspected mandibular fracture, the client discloses to the nurse that the injury results from the client's spouse hitting the client. Which action should the nurse prioritize when responding to this disclosure?

Reporting the abuse to the appropriate authorities

A client is unhappy with the health care provided and informs the nurse that the client is leaving the facility. The client has not been discharged by the physician. The nurse finds that the client has dressed and is ready to go. What should've the nurse's action be in this situation?

The nurse should call and inform the nursing supervisor of the situation

A cause of action in which one person asserts that a physical, emotional, or financial injury was a consequence of another person's actions or failure to act. Implies one breached one's duty to another person.

Tort

A client was admitted to a postoperative nursing unit after undergoing abdominal surgery. During this time, the nurse failed to recognize the significance of abdominal swelling, which significantly increased during the next 6 hours. Later, the client had to undergo emergency surgery. The lack of action on the nurse's part is liable for action. Which legal term describes this case?

Tort

Developed and implemented by the nursing profession itself, are not mandatory but are used as guidelines for peer review. Examples of these include the American Nurses Association (ANA) standards of practice, professional standards for the accreditation of education programs and service organizations, and standards for the certification of individual nurses in the general and specialty areas of practice.

Voluntary Standards

A legal document where one communicates wishes of how to dispose of personal effects and belongings upon one's death.

Will

A nurse, while off-duty, tells the physiotherapist that a client who was admitted to the nursing unit contracted AIDS due to exposure to sex workers at the age of 18. The client discovers that the nurse has revealed the information to the physiotherapist. With what legal action could the nurse be charged?

slander

An assault that is carried out and includes willful, angry, and violent or negligent touching of another person's body or clothes or anything attached to or held by that other person

Battery

A voluntary process by which a nursing education program is recognized for hazing met certain standards by the NLN Commision for Nursing Education Accreditation and/or the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. The Joint Commission can also accredit health care agencies.

Accreditation

A threat or an attempt to make bodily contact with another person without that person's consent

Assault

A nurse is caring for a client who has undergone coronary angioplasty. The cardiac monitor is showing abnormal electrocardiogram waves, indicating atrial fibrillation. The nurse does not recognize the importance of the sign; as a result, the client's condition deteriorates and the client has to be taken up for an emergency procedure. Which describes the nurse's legal liability?

Tort

Nurses are occasionally asked to witness a testator's (person who makes the Will) signing of the will. What guideline is true regarding a nurse's role in witnessing a testator's signature?

Witnesses to a signature do not need to read the will.