Laws that are Commonly Applied to Nurses in Different Clinical Setting

Humans are never created to be perfect. Even if we tried our best to be a perfect person but still we commit mistakes. We always aim for perfection that’s why we want to study the things around us. Like how things work and the effect after a cause. There are different professional courses rose from different schools offering engineering, accountancy, education to health care related courses. A profession that focuses on human health is very important. These courses really need much time, effort, focus and commitment. These professions include nursing, medicine, medical technologist, radiologist and many more. These fields are very vital since they are dealing with human lives. In this topic we will be talking about the legal issues, laws and ethics in a hospital setting. Expect that most of the things we are to talk are about the laws, legal system and issues with regards to nurses in a hospital.

Nursing profession is not an easy work. Nurses must really try to be perfect at all times even if it is said that humans are imperfect individuals. They must be a hundred percent sure of what they are doing since they are taking care of lives. One wrong move can spell death. To prevent or to limit mistakes in a hospital setting we are guided by rules which nurses should follow. To start with, let us first know the sources of law that affects the practice of nursing. Actually there are four law sources and these are the constitutional law, legislative law, administrative law, and the common law. The constitutional law composes a group of rules and principles that is in favor for both the government and the people’s right. In nursing field, patient’s right is important. it would cover autonomy, confidentiality, respect for person, and veracity. The right that a patient has may also be applicable to nurses.

Next is the legislative law. This is composed of a law made by the state or a legislator. This legislator will formulate a law in a period of time. They kept on making a law because it is believed that each day there are different kinds of problems that will occur and a law is the only perfect solution to those problems.  This is very helpful to medical fields since there are a lot of hospital changes each year. In each change there is always a high risk of errors.

Next is the administrative law. this type of law is made by a certain agency. Just like for example the local education agency, professional agency, and health agency. In order for these agencies to carry out their purpose they will propose a certain law. This is very important in nursing since health and the professional agencies can formulate a law that would regulate some aspects of the nursing practice. Next is the common law. This is a law that enables decision basing on another law related to it. In other words it has a precedent.

After knowing the different sources of law we are now to identify the different types of law. Nurses must know the different kinds of law since some of them are the one regulating the nursing practice.. First is the public law. This is a law which a person’s right is related to the government law. One important type of this is the criminal law which obviously deals with crime. The next type is the private law. This is a law in which a person’s rights are based on numerous activities that involves other individual. Private law has different branches. These are the contract law, tort law, property law, and family law. The branch of private law that is related to nursing practice is the tort law. A tort is an action done by someone which results to an injury of another person. Nurses are at high risk in getting in to court trials because of its clinical activities. A tip for those nurses out there is to keep on generating rationales for each action. Most importantly is to always focus on your work. As you enter the hospital leave your worries behind…