Legal Terms
This 1996 act protects patients’ private health information.
What is HIPAA?
A nurse is assigned to care for a patient and must provide care that meets professional standards. This establishes the first element of negligence.
What is duty?
Complete the phrase: “If you didn’t document it, …”
It didn’t happen
This Right of Delegation asks whether a task is suitable to be assigned to another person.
What is the Right Task?
Physical devices, material, or medications used to restrict a patient’s freedom of movement.
What are restraints?
A patient requires hourly monitoring, but the nurse skips several required checks. This failure to meet the standard of care represents this element.
What is breach of duty?
Along with notifications and patient education, this must be documented when a patient declines a treatment or procedure.
What is a refusal of care?
This Right of Delegation asks whether the delegatee has the proper training and skills to complete it safely.
What is the Right Person?
This law prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities.
What is Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)?
Evidence shows that missed monitoring delayed treatment and caused preventable harm. This connection between the nurse’s actions and the patient’s harm establishes this element.
What is causation?
A nurse posts a photo of a patient’s wound on social media with no name attached. Is this a violation, and why?
What is HIPPA? Even “de-identified” details that could identify a patient should never be posted
A nurse asks a nursing assistant to help a patient walk to the bathroom, but the patient suddenly becomes dizzy. What is the Right of Delegation that requires the nurse to consider the patient's condition and whether it is safe to perform the task?
What is the Right Circumstance?
The act that requires hospitals to treat people with an emergency medical condition
What is Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTLA)?
A nurse forgets to put the side rails up as required by the patient's care plan and fails to ensure the call light is within reach. The patient attempts to get out of bed alone, falls, and suffers a fractured hip that requires surgery. This element of negligence refers to the harm the patient suffered as a result of the incident.
What is injury or damages?
You are asked to use a pump you have never been trained on. Name a prevention strategy and the action you take.
What is working within your scope?
A nurse delegates a task to a trained nursing assistant, explains the procedure and expected results, and later checks the work to ensure it was completed correctly and safely. Which two Rights of Delegation are demonstrated by explaining the task and checking the results?
What are the Right Directions/Communication and the Right Supervision/Evaluation?