LVN Legal and Ethical Practice 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A patient refuses a prescribed medication. What is the LVN's first appropriate action?
- Administer the medication anyway to protect the patient
- Document the refusal and notify the charge nurse or supervising RN (Correct answer)
- Discharge the patient for non-compliance
- Contact the pharmacy to cancel the prescription
Correct answer: Document the refusal and notify the charge nurse or supervising RN
The LVN must respect patient autonomy, document the refusal, and report it to the supervising nurse for follow-up.
Question 2: Which document legally authorizes another person to make healthcare decisions for a patient who becomes incapacitated?
- Living will
- Do-Not-Resuscitate order
- Durable power of attorney for healthcare (Correct answer)
- POLST form
Correct answer: Durable power of attorney for healthcare
A durable power of attorney for healthcare designates a healthcare proxy to make decisions when the patient lacks decision-making capacity.
Question 3: An LVN witnesses a co-worker falsifying a patient's medication administration record. What should the LVN do?
- Ignore it to avoid workplace conflict
- Correct the record without telling anyone
- Report the falsification to the supervisor and document the observation (Correct answer)
- Confront the co-worker privately and take no further action
Correct answer: Report the falsification to the supervisor and document the observation
Falsifying medical records is fraudulent and illegal; the LVN has a professional and legal duty to report it to a supervisor.
Question 4: Under HIPAA, which of the following is permissible without specific patient authorization?
- Sharing records with the patient's employer
- Disclosing information to law enforcement without a subpoena
- Releasing information to other treating providers for continuity of care (Correct answer)
- Giving records to the patient's spouse without the patient's consent
Correct answer: Releasing information to other treating providers for continuity of care
HIPAA permits disclosure of PHI to other treating providers without authorization because it is needed for treatment purposes.
Question 5: A patient signs a consent form but later tells the LVN they did not understand what they signed. The LVN should:
- Reassure the patient that the form is standard
- Proceed with the procedure since the form is already signed
- Notify the supervising RN or physician so informed consent can be re-established (Correct answer)
- Ask the patient to sign a second copy of the same form
Correct answer: Notify the supervising RN or physician so informed consent can be re-established
Informed consent requires understanding; if that is lacking, the procedure should be paused and the provider notified to re-explain and re-obtain consent.
Question 6: Which ethical principle is MOST directly upheld when an LVN keeps a patient's diagnosis confidential from unauthorized visitors?
- Beneficence
- Justice
- Autonomy
- Confidentiality/Fidelity (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Confidentiality/Fidelity
Protecting patient information from unauthorized parties upholds the ethical duty of confidentiality, a component of fidelity to the nurse-patient relationship.
Question 7: An LVN is asked to perform a task that falls outside their scope of practice. The appropriate response is to:
- Attempt the task to avoid delaying patient care
- Perform the task if a more experienced nurse is nearby
- Decline and explain that the task exceeds their scope of practice (Correct answer)
- Ask a nursing assistant to perform the task instead
Correct answer: Decline and explain that the task exceeds their scope of practice
LVNs must practice within their legally defined scope and must refuse tasks that exceed those boundaries to protect patient safety.
LVN Legal and Ethical Practice 2
A patient refuses a prescribed medication.
What is the LVN's first appropriate action?