What every nurse should know

INTRODUCTION
Nurses have more responsibility

Increased numbers of Advanced Practice Nurses

Law is there to assist in the decision-making
process involved in nursing practice
Law is there for the protection of nursing practice

Law is there for the identification of the risk of
liability
Importance of Law to the
Nurse
Sources of Law
Constitutional law
Enacted law
Regulatory law
Common usage
Case law
Classifications of Law
Criminal law
Harm against society
Offenses against the state
Felonies, misdemeanors,
juvenile
Conviction requires proof
beyond reasonable doubt
Civil law
Legal disputes
between private parties
Torts
Negligence
Malpractice
Tort Law is the enforcement of duties &
rights among independent of contractual
agreements. It is a civil wrong committed
on a person or property stemming from
either a direct invasion of some legal
right of the person, infraction of some
public duty, or the violation of some
private obligation by which damages
accrue to the person.
TORTS AND CRIMES
Examples of Tort Law include:

Negligence & Malpractice

Assault & Battery

False Imprisonment

Restraints or Seclusion

Invasion of Privacy

Defamation

Fraud
Scenario
An elderly resident in a long
term care facility decides not to
take an ordered antidepressant
medication. The nurse believes
that the resident needs the
medication and dissolves it in
juice, administering the
medication without telling the
resident.
Unintentional Tort-Negligence
Harm must have occurred

Negligent person had a duty to another

There was a breach of duty

Harm was caused by the breach of duty
NEGLIGENCE AND MALPRACTISE
# Negligence is failure to use the care that a
person would normally use

# Malpractice is a failure in professionally
duty, practice or skill that leads to injury or
harm to the patient.
Common acts of negligence are:
Overlooked sponges

Burns and falls

Wrong medicine, wrong dose, wrong concentration,
wrong patient.

Defects in apparatus or supplies.

Abandonment

Loss or damage of patients property.
INCIDENT REPORTS

Incident reports is to ensure that there is a record of
details of the incident and subsequent action taken by legal
proceedings.

GOOD SAMARITAN LAWS:
This law are intended to encourage qualified people to
give aid in an emergency.

ASSAULT AND BATTERY:
Assault refers to attempts or threats to do bodily harm to
another. Battery is unlawful beating of another.

INFORMED CONSENT:
The rights of the patient is right to consent to
treatment.
INVASION OF PRIVACY:
In this every individual has the right to withhold both
himself and his property from public scrutiny.

DEFAMATION OF CHARACTER:
It means that a persons reputation is damaged by
written or spoken words that tend to lower his esteem in the
eyes of the other people.
ABORTIONS:
Its premature termination of pregnancy it can occur
spontaneously or it may be induced by medical or surgical
means.
WIILS:
Will is declaration of an individual wishes regarding
what is to be done with property after his death.
CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES LEGISLATION
Laws in which the nurse involved in the control and
administration of narcotics and other potentially harmful
drugs.


MALPRACTICE INSURANCE:
Due to increase in number of malpractice in
general and against nurses, many authorities recommend
that each nurse carry her own malpractice insurance to
cover the cost of lawful fees;
Malpractice is one type of negligence, it is referred as
professional negligence. Nursing malpractice results when
nursing care falls below the standard of nursing care .
Nurses can be found liable for malpractice if the
following criteria are established.

The nurse(defendant)owed a duty to the
client(plaintiff )

Nurse did not carry out the duty.

Client was injured

Nurses failure to carry out the duty caused the injury.
1 NT , 17 July 2007 , vol 103 no 29,
pg 26-27 .
2 NT , 24 July 2007 , vol 103, no 30 ,
pg 24-25.
3 NT , 31 July 2007 , vol 103, no 31 ,
pg 26-27.
References

JOURNALS
1. CINAHL

2. Medline

3. WebSPIRS Includes Business,
Health, Science, Human Resources,
Databases Searched