Unit-8 Ethical Dilemma in Nursing Practice

Unit-8
Ethical Dilemma In Nursing

Practice
Ms. Aysha Khadam
Areas Of Potential Liability in Nursing
• The state of being legally responsible for something is called liability.
• Nursing liability is usually involved with tort law.
• It is important for the nurse to know the differences between
professional negligence (an unintentional tort) and intentional torts.
• Nurses must also recognize those nursing situations in which negligent
actions are most likely to occur, and take measures to prevent them.
• When the nurse fails to meet the legal expectations of care, the client
can initiate action if harm or injury is incurred by the client.
Legal Foundations of Nursing
• The word law is derived from an Anglo-Saxon term meaning that which
is laid down or fixed.
Types of Law:
• The two types of law public and civil law.
Public law
• Deals with an individual’s relationship to the state.
Civil law
• Deals with relations between individuals.
Sources of law
• The three sources of public law at the federal and state levels are:
• Constitutional
• Administrative
• Criminal
• The three sources of civil law at the federal and state levels are:
• Contracts
• Torts
• Protective and reporting laws
Criminal law
• Most common example of public law is criminal law.
• Refers to acts or offenses against the welfare or safety of the public.
 In criminal law, there are two types of crimes:
• Felonies
• Misdemeanors
Crime:
• A crime is an act committed in violation of public law and punishable
by a fine or imprisonment.
Classification of Crime
1. Felony:
• A crime of a serious nature, such as murder, punishable by a term in
prison.
• Manslaughter: A second-degree murder.
• Example: A nurse who accidentally gives an additional and lethal
dose of a narcotic can be accused of manslaughter.
2. Misdemeanor:
• An offense of a less serious nature and is usually punishable by a fine
or short-term jail sentence, or both.
Tort law
• Tort law is the enforcement of duties and rights among individuals
independent of contractual agreements.
• A tort is a civil wrong committed against a person or a person’s
property.
• Tort is an act that harms a person.
• Tort liability can be classified as:
• Unintentional Tort (negligence and malpractice)
• Intentional Tort (assault and battery, false imprisonment, invasion of
privacy, defamation, and fraud)
Unintentional Tort
1. Negligence is misconduct or practice that is below the standard
expected of an ordinary, reasonable, and prudent person.
• People not in the medical field, can be liable for negligence.
• E.g., Hanging the wrong intravenous solution for a patient.
2. Malpractice is “professional negligence,” that is, negligence that

occurred while the person was performing as a professional.
• E.g., Failing to check a patient’s identification correctly before
administering blood and then giving the blood to the wrong patient.
Proof of liability
Proof of liability depends on Six elements:
1. Duty
2. Breach of duty
3. Foreseeability
4. Causation
5. Harm or injury
6. Damages
Intentional Torts
1. Assault
• Described as an attempt or threat to touch another person unjustifiably.
• A stated intent to touch a person in an offensive, insulting, or
physically intimidating manner.
2. Battery
• The touching of another person without the person’s consent.
• Forcibly removing a patient’s clothing
• Administering an injection after the patient has refused it
• Pushing a patient into a chair
Intentional Torts
3. False imprisonment
• The “unjustifiable detention of a person without legal warrant to
confines the person”.
• Occurs when clients are led to believe they cannot leave a place.
• Example;
• Telling a client not to leave the hospital until the bill is paid.
• Misuse of physical or chemical restraints.
Intentional Tort
4. Invasion of privacy is a direct wrong of a personal nature.
• Release of a patient’s health care information to an unauthorized
person, such as a member of the press, the patient’s employer, the
patient’s family, or online.
• E.g., Break of clients Privacy and Confidentiality.
Intentional Tort
5. Defamation
• Communication that is false, or made with a careless disregard for
the truth, and results in injury to the reputation of a person.
1. Slander is defamation by the spoken word, stating unprivileged

(not legally protected) or false words by which a reputation is
damaged.
• E.g., The nurse tell a client that another nurse is incompetent.
2. Libel is defamation by means of print, writing, or pictures.
• E.g., nurse’s notes that a primary care provider is incompetent.

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Unit-8

Ethical Dilemma In Nursing

2. Malpractice is “professional negligence,” that is, negligence that

1. Slander is defamation by the spoken word, stating unprivileged

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