Nursing Law
Duty of care: This can be defined as duty that healthcare professionals owe their client in order to avoid unreasonable risk of harm to patients receiving nursing care under them. Duty of care is expected where a person is responsible for the care of others. A nurse has a legal duty to be careful when nursing a patient
If a health care professional is careless in his or her nursing practice, this is known as breach of duty of care and such professional can be held liable for such act or omission.
Negligence: Negligence can be defined as an actionable harm caused to other people under one’s care. As an example, if a nurse was negligent in administering an incorrect dose of a medication; which might result in a patient sustaining injury. This means that the nurse responsible fell below standard of care expected of them.
Consent: Is a legal obligation that is required from all persons who are in the care and treatment of a patient, before initiating any procedure or treatment. As a broad principle, obtaining the consent of a person prior to undertaking a procedure or treatment is respectful and therefore, should be attended to as a matter of course by all health professionals. For example, a patient has a legally enforceable right not to be touched by health care worker without a valid consent.
Hence, for consent to be valid, it must: * Be informed, * Cover the actual procedure, * Be voluntarily given by the client, and * Be obtained by a patient with legal capacity to give a valid consent. Vicarious Liability: This is a legal based upon a relationship rather than upon individual conduct. An employer is vicariously liable for the actions of its employee. If an employee commits a civil wrong in the course of his employment, the employer is liable to pay any compensation.
However, the employer may seek to reclaim such compensation