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Vocabulary flashcards covering key legal terms, ethical principles, care settings, and historical concepts from the lecture transcript.
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Acute Care Hospital
A facility that provides short-term, intensive medical treatment for patients with severe or urgent conditions.
Specialty Surgical Center
An outpatient facility focused on specific surgical procedures, often offering quicker, lower-cost care than hospitals.
Urgent Care Center
A walk-in clinic for illnesses or injuries that need prompt attention but are not life-threatening emergencies.
Hospice
Comprehensive end-of-life care that emphasizes comfort, pain control, and quality of life rather than curative treatment.
Health-Care Law
The body of federal and state statutes, regulations, and case law governing the delivery of medical services.
HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)
U.S. law that protects patient privacy and controls the sharing of health information.
EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act)
Federal law requiring hospitals to screen and stabilize anyone in an emergency or active labor, regardless of ability to pay.
Nurse Practice Act
State statute that defines the scope of nursing practice and sets legal requirements for licensure and professional conduct.
Malpractice
Professional negligence that causes injury; proven by duty, breach, harm, and causation.
Negligence
Failure to act as a reasonably prudent nurse would, leading to potential harm.
Duty
The legal obligation a nurse owes to a patient once a care relationship is established.
Breach of Duty
Failure to meet the accepted standard of care.
Harm (Damages)
Physical, emotional, or financial injury suffered by a patient.
Causation
Direct link between the nurse’s breach and the patient’s harm.
Informed Consent
Permission given by a competent patient after receiving full disclosure of risks, benefits, and alternatives.
Age of Consent (Ohio)
Legal age—18 for general treatment; 14 for certain reproductive or mental-health services.
Advance Directive
Legal document stating a person’s wishes for medical care if they become unable to communicate.
Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) Order
Medical order instructing health-care providers not to perform CPR if breathing or heartbeat stops.
Organ Donation Authorization
Legal consent to donate tissues or organs after death.
Active Euthanasia
Deliberate action taken to end a patient’s life to relieve suffering.
Passive Euthanasia
Allowing death by withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatments.
Autonomy
Ethical principle that respects the patient’s right to make independent decisions.
Beneficence
Ethical duty to promote good and act in the patient’s best interest.
Non-Maleficence
Obligation to avoid causing harm ("do no harm").
Justice
Ethical principle demanding fair and equal treatment of all patients.
Fidelity
Keeping promises and maintaining trust in the nurse–patient relationship.
Veracity
Ethical duty of truthfulness with patients.
Assault
Intentional threat or attempt to make another person fearful of imminent harm.
Battery
Intentional, unauthorized physical contact with a patient.
False Imprisonment
Unlawful restriction of a person’s freedom of movement (e.g., improper restraints).
Elopement (Health Care)
When a patient leaves a facility without authorization or disappears during care.
Voluntary Admission
Patient willingly seeks inpatient psychiatric treatment and may request discharge.
Involuntary Admission
Court- or provider-initiated psychiatric hospitalization against a patient’s will for safety reasons.
72-Hour Hold
Emergency, short-term involuntary commitment period pending further evaluation.
Slander
Spoken false statement damaging someone’s reputation.
Libel
Written or printed false statement harming someone’s reputation.
Lobotomy
Historic neurosurgical procedure once used to treat mental illness by severing brain connections.
Hysteria (Historical)
Outdated diagnosis attributing women’s emotional behavior to a wandering uterus.
Deinstitutionalization
1960s movement that closed large psychiatric hospitals and shifted care to community settings.
Ergot Poisoning
Ingestion of rye fungus causing hallucinogenic symptoms, once mistaken for witchcraft or insanity.
Mental-Health Stigma
Negative societal attitudes and discrimination toward people with psychiatric disorders.