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 patient in a correctional facility requests to refuse a medically necessary blood transfusion on religious grounds. The nurse should first:
Answer: Document the refusal, ensure informed refusal is completed, and notify the physician
Competent adults have the right to refuse treatment, including for religious reasons; the nurse must document informed refusal and notify the physician.
Which federal law specifically prohibits sexual abuse and harassment of incarcerated individuals and establishes national standards for prevention and response?
Answer: Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA)
PREA (2003) established national standards to prevent, detect, and respond to sexual abuse and harassment in correctional facilities.
When documenting a use-of-force incident involving an incarcerated patient, the correctional nurse should:
Answer: Document objective clinical findings using neutral, professional medical terminology
Nurses must document clinical observations objectively and independently of security narratives to maintain medical record integrity and legal defensibility.
Which of the following best describes the concept of 'dual loyalty' conflict in correctional nursing?
Answer: Tension between obligations to individual patient care and institutional security demands
Dual loyalty describes the ethical tension correctional nurses face between patient advocacy and the security/institutional demands of the correctional environment.
Under HIPAA, which of the following disclosures of inmate health information to correctional officers is permissible without patient authorization?
Answer: Disclosing information necessary to provide health care to the individual
HIPAA permits disclosure to correctional officers when necessary to provide health care to the inmate, but does not permit wholesale access to medical records.
A nurse in a state prison refuses to participate in an execution by lethal injection. What ethical principle most directly supports this refusal?
Answer: Nonmaleficence — the duty to do no harm
The principle of nonmaleficence (do no harm) and nursing codes of ethics explicitly prohibit nurse participation in executions.
When an incarcerated person is transferred to a community hospital for emergency care, which HIPAA provision governs the transfer of their medical records?
Answer: Records may be shared with the treating facility under the treatment exception without additional authorization
The HIPAA treatment exception permits sharing medical information with other healthcare providers for the purpose of treatment without patient authorization.