Fundamentals
Ethics and Civil Law
● Reporting Act
○ Child and elderly abuse
○ Gunshot wounds
○ Communicable diseases
○ Ophthalmia Neonatorum
○ Phenylketonuria
○ Criminal acts
● Incident Reports
○ NEVER place in a patient's chart
○ If a patient wants to leave AMA, it is the provider's responsibility to advise the
patient of any risks involved when they refuse care
● Advanced Directives
○ Two Types
■ Living will
■ Durable Power of Attorney: transfers all rights to the designated agent
○ Intended to allow patients to have more control over their health care decisions at
the end of life
● Informed Consent
○ Not required in emergency situations
○ Capacity-age (adult), competence (can make choices and understand
consequences)
○ Voluntary
■ Freedom of choice without force, fraud, duress, or coercion
○ Informed consent not to be made under the influence of a drug or alcohol
○ The nurse’s signature as a witness on a consent form indicates that the nurse
observed the informed consent or the clients authorized representative voluntarily
signed the consent form
● When to Question Provider Orders
○ Ambiguous orders
○ Orders that the patient questions
○ Orders when the patient’s condition has changed
○ Orders which do not match with your experience
○ Verbal orders that the doctor has not yet co-signed
● How to Protect your License
○ Do not let anyone else borrow it
○ Do not copy it unless you write COPY on it
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○ If you lose your license, report it immediately
○ Be sure that the Board of Nursing is notified of any changes of address or name
○ Practice nursing according to the scope and standards of the state you work in
● Torts
○ Civil wrongs
○ Intentional
■ Assault, battery, defamation, false imprisonment, outage, invasion of privacy,
wrongful disclosure of confidential information (can fax or email personal
information if consent was given)
○ Unintentional (Negligence)
■ Failure of a nurse to perform an act that a reasonable person would or would
not perform in similar circumstances
■ Can be an act of omission or commission
■ Occurs when injury results from the failure of the wrongdoer to exercise
care
● Malpractice
○ Professional misconduct that is an unreasonable lack of skill or fidelity in duties
○ Ex; not inserting a foley, not taking appropriate steps to decrease a patient’s
temperature, not reporting worsening conditions of the patient to the provider, not
preventing falls
● Libel
○ Written communication that injures a person’s reputation
● Slander
○ Oral communication that injures a person’s repudiation
● Assault
○ A threat or an attempt to make bodily contact with another person without the
person's consent
○ Ex: threatening to give an injection to a psychotic patient if they do not behave
properly
● Battery
○ Touching another person unlawfully or carrying out a threatened physical harm
● Good Samaritan law
○ Enacted by individual states to encourage healthcare providers to assist at the
scene of accidents and emergencies
■ Care must be provided in good faith and must be gratuitous
■ The nurse must provide care at the level of their scope of practice
● Liability
○ Individual
■ Everybody is liable to his or her action/conduct
■ Liability must be shared by another person or group (ex; doctors and fellow
nurses or a facility such as a hospital)
○ Vicarious
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