ethical and legal concepts Flashcards
A legal document that specifies healthcare instructions or identifies a proxy (surrogate decision maker) for making healthcare decisions.
advance directive
The threat of harm from unauthorized touching.
assault
An individual’s right to self-determination; the right of patients to make their own decisions about their care consistent with their personal values.
autonomy
Unlawfully touching another individual.
battery
The nurse’s moral obligation to do good.
beneficience
Decision to deviate from a boundary for a therapeutic purpose, such as appointment changes, disclosing personal bits of information, or exchanging small gifts.
boundary crossing
Decision to deviate from a boundary for a purpose that is other than therapeutic; this might include holding dual roles with a patient, inappropriate self-disclosure or touching, or sexual misconduct.
boundary violation
A nursing action (or inaction) that fails to meet accepted standards of care.
breach of duty
A clinical determination of whether an individual is capable of making healthcare decisions.
capacity
Developed by the ANA, a code that mandates every professional nurse’s obligations and commitment to society.
code of ethics for nurses
The power of one person to affect the decision of another; includes persuasion and manipulation. Also called undue influence.
coercion
The obligation not to disclose private information.
confidentiality
Ethical behavior characterized by unchanging, self-evident moral duty; “rule-based” ethics.
deontology
The nurse’s legal and ethical responsibility to perform nursing care according to accepted standards of care once the nurse–patient relationship has been established.
duty of care
Duty of a clinician to warn an individual of foreseeable harm when a patient threatens the safety of that individual.
duty to warn
Identifying empathy and emotional connectedness as dictating moral behavior.
ethics of care
Unlawful confinement of a patient against his or her will.
false imprisonment
The nurse’s obligation to be dedicated to patients and faithful in the performance of his or her duties.
fidelity
The permission that a patient, or her representative, grants a healthcare provider to provide medical treatment.
informed consent
The ability to consistently adhere to character-resonating values.
integrity
A position or action that simultaneously accounts for potentially conflicting alternatives.
integrity preserving compromise
Admission to treatment of an individual against his or her will.
involuntary commitment
The fair and equal treatment of patients and others.
justice
In New York, a statute that established requirements for involuntary commitment.
Kendra’s Law
Professional negligence
malpractice
The obligation to do no harm.
nonmalificience
State legislation that establishes licensing requirements, permitting of nursing titles, and functions composing the legal scope of nursing practice in that state.
Nurse Practice Act
The intentional overriding of another’s preferences with the intent to do good.
paternalism
Confidential communications, usually between two individuals recognized as having a unique professional relationship (e.g., patient and healthcare provider).
privileged communications
(PAD) A specific type of advance directive that permits individuals to specify treatment options should they become incapacitated due to mental illness (e.g., psychosis).
psychiatric advance directive
The physical, mechanical, or chemical involuntary constraint or restriction of a patient’s freedom, including restriction or constraint of movement.
restraint
The patient’s prerogative to be left alone, free from intrusion, and in command of personal information.
right to privacy
Generally recognized and accepted benchmarks for the provision of nursing care, often defined as what any ordinary, reasonable, and prudent nurse would do, based on what any other reasonable and prudent nurse would have done in a similar situation.
standard of care
A category of law that deals with harmful or wrongful acts resulting in injury to either another person or another person’s property.
Tort Law
The power of one person to affect the decisions of another, especially through persuasion or manipulation.
undue influence
Ethics based on the consequences of an action, with good or pleasure as the ethical imperative.
utlitarianism
Ideals that assign meaning to individuals’ decisions.
values
Truthfulness.
veracity
Admission that occurs when a patient voluntarily consents to treatment, particularly admission into a residential treatment facility.
voluntary admission
