Transcript Legal and Ethical Issues

Textbook for Nursing Assistants
Chapter 4: Legal and Ethical Issues
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Legal and Ethical
Issues
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• Factors that influence behavior
– Society’s laws
– Governing authority
– Personal ethical code
– Moral sense
– Values instilled by the family
– Spiritual beliefs
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Patients’ and Residents’
Rights
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Patients’ Rights
• Revision of Patients’ Bill of Rights by
American Hospital Association
• 12 points in the Patients’ Bill of Rights
– Guidelines established to protect patients
– Now call the Patient Care Partnership
• Patients’ responsibilities in the bill
– States what the patients responsibilities
are in their own care
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Residents’ Rights
• Guidelines as part of the Omnibus Budget
Reconciliation Act (OBRA)
– Must be followed for Medicare reimbursement
• 12 points in the Residents’ Rights
– Similar rights that protect LTC residents
• Purpose of rights
–
Sets legal and ethical standards
–
Creates atmosphere of open communication
–
Protects residents
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Advanced Directives
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Advanced Directives
• Decision-making capacity is the ability to
make thoughtful decisions based on an
understanding of the risks and benefits
related to the decision.
– An unconscious or otherwise cognitively
impaired patient has an effected decisionmaking capacity
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Advanced Directives
• Advance directives are documents that allow
for decisions concerning health care can be
made to family, friends and health care
providers at times when decision making is
impaired
– Durable Power of Attorney for Health
Care
– Living Will
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Advanced Directives
• Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care
– The authority to make health care
decisions is transferred to a health care
agent in times when the patient’s decision
making abilities are impaired
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Advanced Directives
• Living Will
– Allows the patient to make known their
wishes concerning end-of-life medical
treatment
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Advanced Directives
• Advanced Directives help preserve the
patient’s right to make informed health
care–related decisions
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Legal Aspects of Health Care
Delivery
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Laws
• A way of preserving a patient and or
residents rights
• Rules made by a local, state or federal
authority which establish principles to help
guide behaviors
• allows us to settle disputes in an orderly
and civilized manner
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Laws
• Types of laws:
– Civil Law – concerned with the relationship
between individuals
– Criminal Law – concerned with the relationship
between an individual and society
• Litigation: Legal action taken against a person
breaking the law
• Liability: Responsibility of an individual to act within
the confines of the law
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Legal Violations
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Violations of Civil Law: Tort
• Types of tort:
– Unintentional tort- you do not intend to cause
harm
• A person who commits unintentional tort is
considered negligent
• Negligence committed by people licensed to
practice their profession is called malpractice
– Intentional tort- intend to cause harm
• Includes defamation, assault, battery, fraud,
false imprisonment, invasion of privacy and
larceny
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Avoiding Legal Dilemmas
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Violations of Criminal Law: Abuse
• Abuse is a repetitive and deliberate infliction of
injury on another person.
• Forms of abuse
– Physical abuse
– Psychological abuse—involuntary seclusion
– Sexual abuse
– Financial abuse
• Risk factors for abuse
– Elder Abuse
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Violations of Criminal Law: Abuse
• Perpetrators of abuse
– Have the need to overpower and dominant
another person
• Role of nursing assistant/PCT in reporting abuse
– Must report to proper authorities
– Follow specific reporting authority of your facility
– Not your responsibly to investigate
– Do not cover up abuse– you can be held culpable
as well
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HIPAA
• Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act preserves the right of
privacy for residents and patients.
– HIPAA protects the right keep health
related information private
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Ethics: Guidelines for
Behavior
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Ethics
• Moral principles or standards that govern
conduct
– Professional Ethics: code stated by the
American Nurse Association
• Beneficence, Nonmaleficence, Justice,
Fidelity, Autonomy, Confidentiality
– Personal Ethics: derived from values
• Value: a cherished belief or principle
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Define the following terms in your notes:
• Beneficence,
• Nomaleficence,
• Justice,
• Fidelity,
• Autonomy
• Confidentiality
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Terms:
• Beneficence
– Do good to those in your care by
preventing harm and promoting health
• Nomaleficence
– Avoid harming those in your care/ Use
kindness & gentleness
• Justice
– Treating others fairly and equally despitecolor, race, sex, religion, culture,
disability or ability to pay
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Terms:
• Fidelity
– Act with integrity to earn trust from others
• Autonomy
– Respecting ones rights and personal
preferences
• Confidentiality
– Maintaining privacy by allowing others to
disclose personal information with the
knowledge that the information shared will
be kept a secret
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End of Presentation
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