Ch.7
A nurse is overheard in the hospital cafeteria making false comments about a client. The nurse is guilty of:
Slander
A legal document that states a patient's health-related wishes-such as a preference for pain management if the patient becomes terminally ill-and also allows the patient's daughter to direct his or her care, is a(an)
Advance directive
A nurse working in a coronary care unit resuscitates a client who had expressed wishes not to be resuscitated. Which tort has the nurse committed?
Battery
Nurses are occasionally asked to witness a testator's (person who makes the will) signing of his or her will. Which of the following guidelines is true regarding a nurse's role is witnessing a testator's signature?
Witnesses to a signature do not need to read the will.
Which of the following clinical events constitute areas of potential liability for the nurses involved? Select all that apply.
• An elderly patient develops skin breakdown on his coccyx because he was turned infrequently. • A patient experiences a seizure after a missed dose of his scheduled anticonvulsant. • A confused patient experiences a fall because her bedrails were left in a lowered position.
The nurse recognizes liability requires specific elements that must be established to prove that malpractice or negligence has occurred. Identify the specific elements. Select all that apply.
• Duty • Breach of duty • Causation • Damages
A nurse assesses a client with psychotic symptoms and determines that the client needs vest restraints. However, the client asks the nurse not to put on vest restraints. What would be the best nursing action?
Contact the physician and obtain necessary orders.
During the orientation to the hospital, the staff development educator discusses unit and institutional-based policies. What is the source of the practice rules that result in unit and institutional-based policies?
Healthcare institution
When the nurse informs a patient's employer of his autoimmune deficiency disease, the nurse is committing the tort of
Invasion of Privacy
The nursing student talks with the student's family about an AIDS client from the clinical experience yesterday. Which tort has the student committed?
Invasion of privacy
The student nurse tells her family about a client with AIDS cared for in clinical yesterday. Which tort has the student committed?
Invasion of privacy
When the nurse informs a patient's employer of his autoimmune deficiency disease, the nurse is committing the tort of
Invasion of privacy
Which of the following situations is an example of battery that the nurse may experience while performing her nursing duties at the health care facility?
Performing a surgical procedure without getting consent
A baccalaureate-prepared nurse is applying for a nurse practitioner position. The nurse is ...
Practicing beyond his scope according to licensure
A registered nurse has had her license suspended after being convicted of being impaired at work. What governing body has the authority to revoke or suspend a nurse's license?
The State Board of Nurse Examiners
Professional regulations and laws that govern nursing practice are in place for which of the following reasons?
To protect the safety of the public
Which of the following clinical events is addressed by the provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)?
A client believes that the health care team is withholding information about her diagnosis and wishes to read her medical chart.
The patient being admitted to the oncology unit conveys his wishes regarding resuscitation in the event of cardiopulmonary arrest. The nurse advises the patient that it would be in his best interest to obtain which document?
A living will
Which of the following is an example of certification?
A nurse who demonstrates advanced expertise in a content area of nursing through special testing.
Which of the following nursing students would most likely be held liable for negligence?
A nursing student administers medication to a resident, while working as a nursing assistant at a local nursing home.
Which process evaluates and recognizes educational programs as having met certain standards?
Accrediation
A client informs the nurse that he is leaving the healthcare facility because he is not satisfied with the treatment. The nurse knows that the client's treatment is incomplete and further testing and evaluations are scheduled. Which action by the nurse would be most appropriate to prevent false imprisonment?
Ask the client to sign a release without medical approval
A registered nurse enters a patient's room and observes the nursing assistant pushing a patient down on the bed. The patient starts crying and informs the nursing assistant that he needs to go to the bathroom. The nursing assistant holds the patient down and tells him he was just in the bathroom. The nurse observing this incident is aware that the nursing assistant's action is an example of which of the following?
Battery
The nurse fails to contact the physician regarding a client who had an open-reduction internal fixation of the tibia and has experienced increasing leg pain (unrelieved by pain medication) for the past four hours. Which element of liability has been violated?
Breach of duty
A client is scheduled for a colonoscopy. The nurse realizes immediately after administering medications to induce conscious sedation that the client has not signed the informed consent. If the nurse has the client sign the informed consent, which element of informed consent would be violated?
Competence
A nurse enters a client's room and finds that the client is lying on the floor. The nurse makes the client comfortable on the bed and completes an examination. She informs the physician and the nursing supervisor about this incident and also completes an incident report. Which of the following actions by the nurse indicates correct knowledge of handling an incident report?
Documents a complete description of the happenings in the client's records
A client informs the nurse that he wants to discontinue his treatment and go home. Later, the nurse finds the client dressed to leave. What action should the nurse take in this situation?
Let the client go after signing a document stating he is going against medical advice.
A malpractice case involving an incident in the operating room has entered litigation. A scrub nurse has been asked to present her firsthand knowledge of the incident based upon recollection and documentation in the client record. The nurse's role in this malpractice case is what?
Nurse as a fact witness.
During the admission assessment of a female client age 40 years with a suspected mandibular fracture, the client discloses to the nurse that her injury came as a result of her husband hitting her. Which of the following actions should the nurse prioritize when responding to this disclosure?
Reporting the abuse to the appropriate authorities
A nurse witnesses a traffic accident in which a child is badly hurt. The nurse dresses the open wounds sustained by the child. The family tries to give monetary compensation, which the nurse refuses. Later, in the hospital, the child develops complications due to infection in the wound. The family holds the nurse responsible for the complications and wants to file a lawsuit. Which of the following statements is true regarding the Good Samaritan law?
The Good Samaritan law will provide legal immunity to the nurse.
The nursing student asks the nurse for an example of a never event. Which example provided by the nurse best answers the nursing student's question?
The client scheduled for a cholecystectomy has a total abdominal hysterectomy.
A client is brought to the emergency department in an unconscious state with a head injury. The client requires surgery to remove a blood clot. What would be the appropriate nursing intervention in keeping with the policy of informed consent prior to a surgical procedure?
The nurse ensures that the client's family signs the consent form.
A physician is called to see a client with angina. During the visit the physician advises the nurse to decrease the atenolol to 12.5 mg. However, since the physician is late for another visit, she requests that the nurse write down the order for her. What should be the appropriate nursing action in this situation?
The nurse should ask the physician to come back and write the order.
After reporting to work for a night shift, the nurse learns that the unit will be understaffed because two RNs called out sick. As a result, each nurse on the unit will need to provide care for an additional four acute clients in addition to his or her regular client assignment. Which of the following statements is true for this nurse when working in understaffed circumstances?
The nurse will be legally held to the same standards of care as when staffing levels are normal.
Which of the following parties is responsible for obtaining informed consent from a patient?
The person performing the procedure, study, or treatment
A nurse is applying for professional liability insurance. The nurse knows that professional liability insurance is important for which of the following reasons?
To be familiar with legal mechanisms
A nurse is caring for a client who has undergone coronary angioplasty. The cardiac monitor is showing abnormal ECG waves, indicating arterial 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 of the following describes the nurse's legal liability?
Tort
The client receives a medication and develops a rash on the trunk of the body, itching, and dyspnea. This is an example of a:
Variance.
The nurse reports a nursing colleague on the unit who is lethargic and verbally responds in a slow manner. This is an example of:
Whistle-blowing
While riding in the elevator, a nurse discusses the HIV-positive status of a client with other colleagues. The nurse's action reflects which of the following?
invasion of privacy
A group of nurses working in a long-term care facility fails to keep the narcotic medications in a secure location. The nurses also fail to count the medications before and after each shift, as indicated by the institution's policies and procedures. These failures may result in what type of disciplinary action?
Action against the nurses' licenses
When the nurse inserts an ordered urinary catheter into the client's urethra after the client has refused the procedure, and then the client suffers an injury, the client may sue the nurse for which type of tort?
Battery
Having recently completed a specialty nursing program in neonatal care, a nurse is now preparing to leave her current position on a medical unit and begin providing care in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The nurse has completed which of the following processes of credentialing?
Certification
During a clinical placement on a subacute, geriatric medicine unit, a student nurse fed a stroke client some beef broth, despite the fact that the client's diet was restricted to thickened fluids. As a result, the client aspirated and developed pneumonia. Which of the following statements underlies the student's potential liability in this situation?
The same standards of care that apply to a registered nurse apply to the student.
