Ethical and legal Flashcards
Beneficence
Actively doing good
Non-maleficence
Avoid harm
Respect for autonomy
Respect patients decisions
Veracity
Truthful
Justice
Equal, fair
Accountability
accept responsibility for one’s actions
Advocacy
Support patient’s decisions
Confidentiality
Private information
Fidelity
Keep promoses and agreements
Responsibility
Dependent and reliable
Deontology by Kant
Focus is on the right or wrongness of individual behaviors, duties, and obligations without concern for consequences
Report corruption without thinking of consequences
Utilitarialism
The principal of “Greatest Happiness”.
Advocates tend to be concerned with social justice and a resistance to rules
Rights based
Focused on the rights of the individual not on the effects of society as a whole
Justice based
No individual person should have any advantage over another
Virtue based
Focused on personal traits of individuals rather than societal norms
Code of ethics
A formalized statement that defines values, morals, and standards guiding practice in a specific discipline or profession.
Moral distress
The anguish that healthcare professionals experience when their basic beliefs of what is right and wrong or ethical principles are challenged
Moral resileince
The capacity of an individual to sustain or restore integrity in response to moral complexity, confusion, distress, or setbacks
Model for ethical decision making
AIPIE
ASSESSMENT- Gather subjective and objective data about the situation.
IDENTIFY- What is the conflict?
PLAN- Explore benefits and consequences, consider theories, select alternative.
IMPLEMENTATION- Act and communicate.
EVALUATION- What was outcome?
Constitutional law
is derived from a formal, written constitution that defines the powers of government & responsibilities of elected officials
Statutory Law
is created by legislative bodies.
Regulatory law
State legislature gives authority to administrative bodies to create regulative law.
Case law
Judicial decisions from individual court cases determine case law.
Tort
Wrongs committed to another person
Assault
Threat to bodily harm
Battery
Actual bodily harm
Difference between libel and slander
Libel-written defamation
Slander- oral defamation
Unintentional torts
Malpractice
Negrligence
Malpractice
Negligence committed by a person practicing within a professional role.
Negligence
Failure to do something that a reasonable person would ordinarily do.
Four D’s of negligence
Duty-owed a duty of care to the accusing patient.
Dereliction-actions did not meet the standard of care required or that care was totally omitted
Damages-Actual injury to the accusing patient must be evident.
Direct cause-A causal relationship must be established between harm to the accusing patient and the actions or omitted acts of the nurse.
Misdemeanor
a crime of lesser consequence that is punishable by a fine or incarceration in a local or county jail for up to 1 year
Felony
more serious crime that results in the perpetrator’s being imprisoned in a state or federal facility for more than 1 year.
Informed consent
permission granted by a patient after discussing
1) exact details of the treatment
(2) necessity of the treatment
(3) all known benefits and risks involved
(4) available alternatives
(5) risks of treatment refusal.
Advance directives consist of two types of documents
living wills and documents appointing a health care proxy, commonly referred to as a durable power of attorney for health care
Living will
specifies the treatment a person wants to receive when the patient is unconscious or no longer capable of making decisions independently
Healthcare proxy
legal document that allows a designated person to make legal and financial decisions on behalf of an individual unable or not permitted to make legal decisions independently.
Licensure of nurses seeks to ensure
professional competence
minimum requirements for providing safe nursing care
Standards of care
Good samaritan acts
When does it apply?
Protect HCP who provide emergency care at the scene of a disaster, emergency, or accident
(1) the care is within the professional’s scope of knowledge and standards of care and (2) no fee is received or charged for services
Uniform determinant of Death
(1) all spontaneous respiratory and circulatory function stops
(2) all brain function, including that of the brainstem, ends.
Brain death requirements set by state laws
(1) the patient is completely unresponsive to painful stimuli
(2) the patient has no involuntary responses to brainstem stimuli, such as pupillary responses; and (3) the patient has no spontaneous respirations when removed from a ventilator
