Professionalism and Manager of Care Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering professional nursing practice, legal regulations, torts, standards of care, client rights, advocacy, and bioethics.

Concept of Professionalism

The display of competent and skillful behaviors aligned with strong morals and ethics, an optimistic attitude, collaborative relationships, integrity, and equality of care.

Concept of Coordinator/Manager of Care

Promoting positive client outcomes as evidenced by providing/directing nursing care to ensure client and health care personnel safety.

Professional Behaviours Framework

A core set of nursing behaviors encompassing achieving results, managing self and personal skills, delivering excellent service, finding innovative solutions, embracing change, using resources, providing direction, developing self and others, and working with people.

NLN

National League for Nursing; an organization focused on establishing nursing competencies to ensure nurses have the knowledge, skills, and attitude required for practice.

QSEN

Quality and Safety Education for Nurses; defines essential competencies including Patient-Centered Care, Teamwork and Collaboration, Evidence-Based Practice (EBP), Quality Improvement (QI), Safety, and Informatics.

Nursing Interventions Scope of Practice Framework

A structure dividing nursing interventions into direct care and indirect care interventions, categorized by initiation type (nurse-initiated, health care provider-initiated, or other provider-initiated).

Patient Advocate

A healthcare professional who acts or intercedes on behalf of clients, supporting their health, wellness, safety, personal rights, and privacy, while assisting them in asserting their legal rights.

Preserving Human Dignity

A core value of nursing advocacy establishing that every patient has the right to be treated with honor and respect while navigating the healthcare system.

Patient Equality

A core value of advocacy directing nurses to deliver care with compassion and respect for individual uniqueness, unrestricted by social status, economic standing, personal attributes, or health conditions.

Freedom from Suffering

A core value of nursing advocacy focused on actively preventing or managing a patient's physical, emotional, or psychological suffering.

Nurse Practice Act (NPA)

Statutory law enacted in each state that defines the scope of nursing practice, sets education requirements, and distinguishes nursing responsibilities from medical practice.

Felony

A serious crime resulting in significant harm to an individual or society, punishable by monetary restitution, imprisonment for greater than 1 year, or death.

Misdemeanor

A minor crime that does not cause serious harm, typically carrying penalties of monetary fines, forfeiture, or brief imprisonment.

Criminal Homicide

An offense occurring when a person purposely, knowingly, recklessly, or negligently causes the death of another, such as gross negligence in medication administration.

Civil Law

A category of law that protects individual rights and ensures equitable treatment when civil violations occur, resulting in fines or court-ordered public service.

Types of Torts Framework

A legal taxonomy dividing civil wrongs into Unintentional Torts (Negligence, Malpractice), Quasi-intentional Torts (Breach of Confidentiality, Defamation), and Intentional Torts (Assault, Battery, False Imprisonment).

Tort

A civil wrong committed against a person or property.

Assault

An intentional threat directed at another person that causes reasonable fear of imminent, harmful, or unwelcome contact without requiring physical touch.

Battery

Any intentional, unconsented, and offensive physical contact directed at a person.

False Imprisonment

The illegal or unjustified restraint of a person without legal justification, requiring that the client be conscious of the confinement.

Invasion of Privacy

The unauthorized disclosure of a client's confidential medical information to third parties, such as the press, employers, or family members.

Defamation of Character

The publication of false statements that lead to damage to an individual's reputation.

Slander

Spoken or oral defamation of character through false verbal statements.

Libel

Written or printed defamation of character through published false statements.

Negligence

Conduct that falls below the accepted standard of care expected of a reasonably prudent person.

Malpractice

Professional negligence occurring when a nurse owes a duty of care, breaches that standard, and directly causes client injury.

Five Elements Necessary to Prove Negligence

The specific elements required to prove liability: 1. Duty to provide care as defined by a standard, 2. Breach of duty by failure to meet standard, 3. Foreseeability of harm, 4. Breach of duty has potential to cause harm, and 5. Harm occurs.

Regulatory Law

Also called administrative law; rules created by government authorities and state Boards of Nursing that define administrative duties, such as mandatory reporting of unethical conduct.

Standards of Care

Established general guidelines based on scientific evidence and legal rules that outline baseline professional expectations and proper protocol for nurses.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

Federal legislation protecting the civil rights of individuals with physical or mental disabilities.

EMTALA

Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act; federal law requiring medical screening and stabilization of clients with emergency conditions prior to discharge or transfer.

HIPAA

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act; federal law providing insurance portability for employees and guaranteeing client confidentiality and privacy of medical records.

HITECH Act

Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act; expands HIPAA rules regarding electronic security breaches and specifically restricts sharing Protected Health Information (PHI) on social media.

Uniform Determination of Death Act

A 1980 statutory standard defining legal death by either cardiopulmonary criteria (irreversible cessation of circulatory/respiratory functions) or whole-brain criteria (irreversible cessation of all brain stem and brain function).

Good Samaritan Laws

State statutes providing legal immunity and limiting liability for healthcare professionals who render care at the scene of an emergency within their scope of training.

Informed Consent

A legal process wherein a competent client or authorized proxy gives written permission for a procedure after receiving explanations of treatment reasons, benefits, risks, alternatives, and rights to refuse.

Patient Self-Determination Act (PSDA)

Federal law requiring healthcare facilities upon admission to inform clients of their rights to accept or refuse treatment and formulate advance directives.

Patient Abandonment

Premature, unilateral termination of the professional care relationship by a nurse without adequate notice or client consent after accepting an assignment.

Living Will

A written legal document stipulating a client's explicit treatment choices in the event they become incapacitated by a terminal illness.

Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care (DPAHC)

A legal document designating a health care proxy to make medical decisions on behalf of a patient who lacks capacity to communicate decisions.

Ethics

Moral principles that govern a person's behavior or professional conduct, focused on promoting good and avoiding harm.

Morals

An individual's internal standards or beliefs concerning acceptable versus unacceptable behavior.

Ethical Dilemma

A situation requiring a choice between two opposing courses of action, neither of which provides a completely ethically satisfactory outcome.

Autonomy

The ethical principle representing a commitment to include patients in healthcare decisions.

Beneficence

The ethical principle of taking positive, active measures to help others.

Nonmaleficence

The ethical principle of avoiding harm, injury, or hurt to others.

Justice

The ethical principle focused on fairness in patient care and distribution of healthcare resources.

Fidelity

The ethical principle requiring agreement to keep promises and fulfill professional commitments.

Conflict

Internal or external discord arising from differences in ideas, values, or feelings between individuals, or perceived goal interference among interdependent parties.