Legal and Ethical Practice in Nursing: The Law and Health Care Practice

Vocabulary flashcards covering fundamental legal principles, statutory and common law frameworks, tort law, negligence, and healthcare professional responsibilities based on the NUM2405 lecture.

Acts of Parliament (Legislation)

Also known as statute law; written laws made by federal or state government after parliamentary debate.

Common Law

Judge-made law where courts interpret the law and decide cases based on past judicial decisions in similar cases, applying those principles to current circumstances.

Doctrine of Precedent

The body of rules developed over time by superior courts to guide them in their consistent application of common law.

Ratio Decidendi

The reasoning for the decision; the legal principle upon which a court bases its ruling according to the particular facts of a case.

High Court of Australia

The highest appeal court in Australia whose judicial decisions are final and binding across both federal and state jurisdictions.

Civil Law

The branch of law dealing with disagreements and disputes between individuals, businesses, or entities, regulated by the laws of respective states and territories.

Criminal Law

The branch of law addressing violations and offenses against the law, governed in Australia by federal legislation.

Tort

A legal wrong that one person or entity commits against another, for which the usual legal remedy is an award of damages.

Duty of Care

The legal, ethical, and professional responsibility of a person or organisation to avoid behaviours or omissions that could reasonably cause foreseeable harm to others.

Standard of Care

The level of care deemed necessary to maintain the safe and effective delivery of care to a patient, which nurses are legally and professionally required to uphold.

Nursing Negligence

An occurrence where a patient experiences unintended harm resulting from a nurse's unintentional mistake or omission in care.

Nursing Malpractice

An occurrence where a nurse knowingly and willfully fails to follow the proper standard of care, resulting in harm to the patient.

Assault

An intentional tort defined as intentionally putting another person in reasonable apprehension of imminent harmful or offensive contact.

Battery

An intentional tort defined as the intentional causation of harmful or offensive contact with another person without that person's consent.

False Imprisonment

An intentional tort defined as an act of restraining another person and causing them to be confined within a bounded area without lawful justification.

Chemical Restraint

The administration of PRN medications, such as benzodiazepines, to restrict a patient's freedom or movement, requiring clear documentation supporting their clinical use.

Confidentiality

The right of an individual to have their personal, identifiable medical information (protected health information) kept private.

Protected Health Information (PHI)

Individually identifiable health information, including demographic data, relating to an individual's past, present, or future physical or mental health, condition, or provision of healthcare.

Good Samaritan

A person who renders aid at the scene of an accident, protected from liability under the Civil Liability Act 2002 provided certain statutory conditions are met.

Mental Health Act 2014

The Western Australian legislation regulating mental health treatment, psychiatrist referral criteria, rights of individuals with mental illness, and inpatient and community treatment orders.