Legal Aspects of Nursing

As a nurse it has become an important necessity to be aware of the legal aspects associated with caring and helping people in the health industry today. Unfortunately, the more and more negligence cases there are the less and less people want to get into the health care field fearing legal aspects and the inevitable law suites. The first nursing law created was that of nursing registration in 1903 and they have only evolved and expanded over the years to create a thick book which must be studied today by aspiring nurses.

The Tort Law is the legal aspects of the law that most nurses are more familiar with. This is the law that involved malpractice and negligence cases which many nurses take the time to learn inside and out as this is one of the biggest fears in the medical community. Basically a Tort is a wrongful act which produces harm, whether it is unintentional or intentional. Malpractice is a specific type of Tort where the standards of care are not met. This is one of the most common and familiar laws to nurses and something that nurses and doctors alike must be familiar with in order to continue their care efficiently.

In order to protect you from malpractice suits, nurses must take as many precautions as they can during their daily shifts. Recording, documenting and reporting your daily routines and decisions is one of the most common ways to make sure you are on track with your patience and in the right. Nurses learn in school that proper care of a patient is not only making the right decisions but maintaining and organizing their medical records and reports efficiently. Any nurse who is not able to provide written proof of their decisions and why that decision was reached will no doubt be charged with nurses’ negligence and risks being seen in front of a court.

The legal aspects of nursing are taught and expected to be kept up on throughout every nurse’s career. Employment as a nurse does not only require a nursing degree but knowledge of the medical laws that will apply to you should there is a misunderstanding or challenge by a patient or their family. A nursing job is something many young people aspire to but without the legal knowledge behind them, many hospitals will not hire them now that legal issues are becoming more and more problematic.