Fundamentals of Nursing Review

FUNDAMENTALS LEGAL LAWS ETHICAL PRINCIPLES

Advocacy: In the healthcare context, advocacy involves actively supporting a person’s health, wellness, safety, privacy, and personal rights. It includes promoting the interests of clients and ensuring they have access to necessary resources and information. Advocacy can take many forms, including providing emotional support, navigating healthcare systems, and ensuring that patients' wishes are respected.

Responsibility: This principle highlights the importance of respecting obligations and following through on promises made to clients. Responsibility encompasses both ethical and legal obligations, emphasizing the importance of reliability and integrity in professional practice.

Accountability: This refers to the willingness to take responsibility for one’s own actions and decisions. In the healthcare environment, professionals must be accountable for their conduct, including treatment decisions, adherence to protocols, and genuine communication with patients and colleagues.

Confidentiality: The principle of confidentiality is focused on the protection of a person’s privacy. Healthcare professionals must ensure that sensitive information about patients is kept secure and only shared with authorized persons. Breaching confidentiality can result in legal consequences and loss of trust.

Autonomy: Autonomy recognizes a person’s right to make their own decisions and choices regarding their healthcare. Respecting autonomy means providing patients with all necessary information to make informed decisions about their treatment options and supporting their right to refuse treatment.

Beneficence: This ethical principle is centered around acts of kindness and the commitment to do good for others. In healthcare, it translates to actions that promote the well-being of patients, striving for positive health outcomes in all interactions.

Fidelity: Fidelity refers to the obligation to keep promises and fulfill contractual duties to patients. This includes honoring commitments made to patients regarding their care and treatment to foster trust in the patient-provider relationship.

Justice: Justice in healthcare means fair treatment and equitable access to resources and quality care for each individual. It emphasizes the need to address disparities in healthcare and advocates for patients’ rights to receive care regardless of their background.

Non-maleficence: The commitment to do no harm is a foundational principle in healthcare ethics. Practitioners must continually assess potential risks and benefits in treatment options to prevent harm in the course of providing care.

Veracity: This principle underscores the importance of truthfulness in patient interactions. Healthcare professionals have a responsibility to provide accurate and truthful information, ensuring that patients understand their conditions and the implications of their choices.

CLIENT RIGHTS

Patient’s Bill of Rights: Adopted by the American Hospital Association (AHA) in 1972, this bill is designed to ensure respect for client rights, promoting awareness and adherence to ethical standards in patient care. It includes the right to receive comprehensive information about their health condition, treatment options, and expected outcomes.

Nurses are responsible for protecting client rights, including:

• Ensuring patients receive detailed information about procedures and treatments.

• Securing informed consent prior to any interventions, ensuring that the patient is fully aware and agreeable.

• Respecting advance directives, which reflect patients' desires regarding future healthcare decisions.

• Maintaining absolute confidentiality concerning patient information while also understanding the limits of that confidentiality.

• Allowing patients to refuse or discontinue treatment or medication, regardless of the type of admission they have.

• Actively involving patients in their care plan, providing opportunities for shared decision-making and receiving competent, evidence-based care.

TORT

A legal term referring to civil wrongs committed against an individual, tort law provides a framework for addressing grievances that result in injury due to another’s act or negligence. Injury can be physical, emotional, or financial.

Unintentional Tort: Negligence

Negligence occurs when a healthcare provider fails to follow established standards of care or protocols, resulting in harm to a patient. Key elements include recognizing the duty of care, establishing a breach of that duty, and demonstrating that the breach caused injury. Common examples include:

• Failing to report equipment malfunctions that could harm patients.

• Not questioning incorrect physician orders, leading to potential harm or ineffective treatment.

• Performing procedures without proper training or supervision, increasing risk for complications.

Intentional Tort: Assault & Battery

• Assault: Defined as a threat or attempt to cause physical harm to a patient, which can include coercive actions like threatening a patient into a procedure against their will.

• Battery: Refers to actual harmful or offensive contact, such as administering a treatment or performing a procedure without the patient's explicit consent.

Quasi-Intentional Tort

• Libel: Refers to defamation that occurs through false and damaging written statements about an individual.

• Slander: Involves harmful spoken statements that may damage a person’s reputation.

• Defamation: An overall term that refers to actions that harm an individual’s reputation, whether through written or spoken communication, requiring proof that the statements are false and damaging.