Ethical Principles
This principle means doing what is best for the patient. (do good).
What is Beneficence?
This 1996 law protects patient privacy and health information.
What is HIPAA?
The original Patient’s Bill of Rights was created in this year.
What is 1973?
A patient refuses a blood transfusion due to religion. What principle is shown?
What is Autonomy?
This word means “a person’s moral principles of right and wrong.”
What are Ethics?
This principle means “do no harm.”
What is Nonmaleficence?
A nurse stops to help a car accident victim while off duty. She provides CPR until paramedics arrive. Later, she worries she might be sued if the patient doesn’t survive. Which law protects her from legal liability as long as she acted responsibly and in good faith?
What is the Good Samaritan Law?
This organization created the original Patient’s Bill of Rights.
What is the American Hospital Association (AHA)?
A doctor gives extra time to a nervous patient. What principle is shown?
What is Beneficence?
This word means “rules made by the government to protect people.”
What are Laws?
A patient refusing treatment demonstrates this principle.
What is Autonomy?
This law requires healthcare providers to explain treatment options and get permission before care.
What is Informed Consent?
The updated version of the Patient’s Bill of Rights is called this.
What is the Patient Care Partnership?
A hospital treats a homeless man and a wealthy donor equally. What principle is shown?
What is Justice?
HIPAA stands for this.
What is Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act?
Treating all patients fairly is part of this principle.
What is Justice?
A nurse learns that a patient with a highly contagious disease refuses to isolate. Reporting the patient would break confidentiality, but not reporting could endanger others. Which law allows the nurse to disclose this information, and why is it legally permitted?
What is HIPAA? HIPAA allows healthcare professionals to share patient information with public health authorities to prevent or control the spread of disease, even without patient consent.
This right allows patients to make their own medical decisions.
What is the Right to Autonomy (or Informed Consent)?
A doctor overrides a patient’s refusal of life-saving treatment, arguing that the patient is in shock and not mentally capable of deciding. Which ethical principles are in conflict, and which one legally prevails?
Conflict: Autonomy vs. Beneficence. Legally, autonomy prevails unless the patient is deemed incompetent, in which case beneficence may apply.
This term means “permission given after understanding all treatment risks and options.”
What is Informed Consent?
A physician gives a terminally ill patient strong pain medication that also has a high risk of stopping their breathing. The doctor’s goal is to ease suffering, not to hasten death — but the medication could shorten the patient’s life. What ethical principles are involved?
What is Beneficence and Nonmaleficence?
A patient’s family demands access to their adult child’s medical records without consent. The hospital denies it under HIPAA. Which two exceptions would legally allow the hospital to share the information anyway?
If the patient is incapacitated and disclosure is in their best interest, or if it’s required by law (e.g., public health or safety reasons).
The Patient’s Bill of Rights was replaced with the Patient Care Partnership in 2003. What was the biggest change in focus between the two documents?
The Patient Care Partnership shifted from listing rights to describing patient expectations and responsibilities, using simpler, more patient-friendly language.
A 16-year-old girl visits a clinic and confides in the nurse that she is pregnant. She begs the nurse not to tell her parents because she’s afraid of how they’ll react.
The nurse knows that state law requires parental involvement for certain medical decisions involving minors, but also knows that the girl could lose trust or avoid care if her privacy isn’t respected.
What should the nurse do — keep the information confidential to protect the patient’s trust, or follow the law and inform the parents?
Which ethical principles and laws are in conflict, and what action best balances both?
The nurse should follow the law but handle it with compassion — involve a social worker or counselor, help prepare the teen for the conversation, and ensure she continues receiving care.
This decision respects the law, honors beneficence and nonmaleficence, and supports the teen’s autonomy as much as possible within legal limits.
A hospital’s ethics committee is reviewing a case involving both a breach of confidentiality and unequal treatment of patients. Which two ethical principles should guide their decision, and why might these principles sometimes conflict?
Justice (fairness) and Autonomy (respect for patient choices). They can conflict when protecting one patient’s privacy may require limiting information that could ensure fairness for others.