Legal Regulations & Ethical Responsibilities Flashcards
7 cards from real CCN practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Legal Regulations & Ethical Responsibilities flashcards as text
A corrections nurse discovers that a colleague has been falsifying medication administration records. What is the nurse's primary ethical and legal obligation?
Answer: Report the misconduct through appropriate channels such as a supervisor or compliance officer
Nurses have a professional and legal duty to report unsafe or unethical practices to protect patient safety and institutional integrity.
Under the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, correctional facilities are prohibited from demonstrating what toward incarcerated individuals' serious medical needs?
Answer: Deliberate indifference
Estelle v. Gamble (1976) established that deliberate indifference to serious medical needs constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment.
A nurse is asked by a correctional officer to share a patient's HIV status without the patient's consent. Which action is most appropriate?
Answer: Decline to share and explain that HIV status is protected health information under HIPAA
HIV status is specifically protected health information and cannot be disclosed without patient consent except in narrowly defined legal exceptions.
Which legal doctrine holds that correctional healthcare providers can be held liable when their failure to act causes patient harm just as much as direct harmful actions?
Answer: Nonfeasance liability
Nonfeasance liability holds that failure to perform a required duty (omission) can create legal liability equivalent to a harmful act.
When a correctional nurse is ordered by security staff to withhold a patient's prescribed pain medication as a disciplinary measure, the nurse should:
Answer: Refuse and document the refusal, then report the order to nursing administration and medical director
Withholding prescribed medication as punishment constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and a violation of medical ethics; nurses must refuse and escalate the issue.
The principle that correctional patients should receive care equivalent to community standards regardless of security status is known as:
Answer: Equivalence of care principle
The equivalence of care principle holds that incarcerated individuals are entitled to healthcare comparable in quality to what is available in the community.
A nurse working in a jail is subpoenaed to testify about a patient's medical records in a criminal proceeding. The appropriate action is to:
Answer: Consult with the facility's legal counsel before complying with the subpoena
A subpoena is a legal order, but nurses should consult legal counsel to determine what records are legally required to be disclosed and what protections apply.