Week 9 Terms Flashcards
Abandonment
Health professional’s failure to stay w a pt and provide care
Accountability
Accepting responsibility for one’s actions
Administrative laws
Laws created by an agency or a dept of the US govt
Advance Directive
Document in which a person gives instructions about his/her medical care in the event the individual cannot speak for him/herself
Damages
Money awarded in a civil lawsuit to compensate the injured party
Defamation
Derogatory statement concerning another person’s skill, character, or reputation
Delegation
Assignment of one’s duties to another person
Deposition
Testimony of a witness given under oath and transcribed by a court reporter during the pretrial phase of a civil lawsuit
Dilemma
Situation or personal conflict that arises from a need to make a decision when none of the choices are acceptable
Ethical Dilemmas
Situation in which ethical choices involve conflicting values
Ethics
Core values that define one’s relationship with others
Evidence-based practice
Professional practices and their standards based established scientific research rather than opinion or tradition
Hospital policy
Rules or regulations that hospital employees are required to follow
Incident report
Written description of any event that caused harm or presented the risk of harm to a pt or staff in the course of normal health care
Informed consent
Process and a legal document that states the pt’s surgical procedure and the risks, consequences, and benefits of that procedure
Insurance
Contract in which the insurance company agrees to defend the policy holder if that individual is sued for acts covered by the policy
Laws
Standards of conduct that apply to all people in a given society
Liable
Legally responsible and accountable
Libel
Defamation in writing
Living will
Legal document stating the pt’s wishes regarding care in the event the pt is unable to speak from him/herself
Malpractice
Negligence committed by a professional
Medical ethics
Branch of ethics concerned with the practice of medicine
Medical power of attorney
Legal document signed by a person who is giving another individual the power to make heal care decision fro the first person if he/she becomes incompetent, unconscious, or unable to make decisions for him/herself
Negligence
Failure to do something that a reasonable person, guided by the ordinary professional considerations would do; or it can be the act of doing something that a reasonable and prudent person would not do
Perjury
Crime of intentionally lying or falsifying information during court testimony after a person has sworn to tell the truth
Practice act
State law that establish and regulate the conditions under which professionals may practice
Professional ethics
Ethical behavior established by authoritative peers of a particular profession
Punitive
Actions intended to punish a person who has violated the law
Retained foreign object
Item that is inadvertently left inside the pt during sx
Safe medical practice act
Federal regulation that requires the reporting of any incident causing death or injury that is suspected to be the result of a medical device
Sentinel event
Unexpected incident resulting in serious physical injury, psychological harm, or death
Sexual harassment
Sexual coercion, sexual innuendoes, or unwanted sexual comments, gestures, or touch
Slander
Spoken defamation
Standards of conduct
Set of rules or guidelines an organization writes for its members
Statute
Laws passed by state legislative bodies
Subpoena
Court order requiring its recipient to appear and testify at a trial or deposition
Timeout
Procedure in which the surgical team affirms the identity of the pt, correct position, an location (side), verification of informed consent, and other documents necessary to proceed w sx
Tort
Legal wrongdoing that results in injury to a person or property
Unretrieved device fragment
Portion of a medical device that has broken off or come apart in the body and is not detected or removed
Standards of practice
Specific technical standards that list and describe the practices of the profession
Position statement
Public declarations of the organization’s collective opinion on important topics rater than evidence-based standards of practice
Certification
Verification that an individual has completed the requirements needed to achieve a designated standard of knowledge or performance
Licensure
Legal requirement of that state and is not voluntary
Registration
Health professionals is an administrative process of the state govt in which the state maintains an official record of the health professionals vital statistics, address, and place of employment for public protection
Respondeat superior
“Let the master respond;” Individual professionals on the surgical team are accountable for their own acts
Res Ipsa Loquitur
“the thing speaks for itself”
Primum non nocere
“first, do no harm”
Civil assault
Threat or attempt to harm another person, regardless of whether the threat is carried out
Battery
Involves contact w intent to injure and applies even if no injury occured
False imprisonment
Managing a group of its all in one place, possibly against their will
