Legal and Ethical Responsibilities

Rationale

professional integrity is dependent on ethical behavior

Code of Medical Ethics

a code of conduct that establishes standards that govern decisions and behavior of these entrusted with providing health care

Civil Law

focuses on legal relationships between people and the protection of a person’s rights

Criminal Law

focuses on wrongs against a person, property, or society

Torts

occur when a person is harmed or injured because a health care provider does not meet the established or expected standards of care

Malpractice (“bad” practice)

commonly called professional negligence

Negligence

failure to give care that is normally expected of a person in a particular position

Assault and battery

assault includes a threat or attempt to injure

battery includes the unlawful touching of another person without consent

Informed consent

permission granted voluntarily by a person who is of sound mind after the procedure and all risks involved have been explained in terms the person can understand

Invasion of privacy

includes unnecessarily exposing an individual or revealing personal information about an individual without that person’s consent

False imprisonment

refers to restraining an individual or restricting an individual’s freedom

Abuse

any care that results in physical harm, pain, or mental anguish

Defamation

occurs when false statements either cause a person to be ridiculed or damage the person’s reputation

Slander

spoken defamation

Libel

written defamation

Ethics

a set of principles relating to what is morally right or wrong

Hippocrates

a Greek physician of the 5th and 4th centuries, B.C., wrote one of the first medical codes of ethics, the Hippocratic Oath

Maimonides

a Hebrew physician in Egypt in twelfth century, wrote the Prayer of Maimonides, which incorporates ethical principles

Nightingale pledge

formulated by a committee of the Farrand school of Nursing, Harper Hospital, Detroit, Michigan

Declaration of Geneva

adopted in 1948 by the Second General Assembly of the World Medical Association

Standards of behavior

confidentiality, accuracy, honesty, dependability