Institute:Office of National Coordinator (ONC) Workforce Training Curriculum
Component:The Culture of Health Care
Unit:Nursing Care Processes
Lecture:Nursing process including clinical judgment and patient assessment; legal and societal expectations; and roles in improving patient care
Slide content:Legal Issues: Informed Consent and Patient Privacy Informed consent: Patient needs to understand the risks and benefits of any diagnostic or treatment procedure Patient privacy: Under the law known as HIPAA, health care providers must keep the patients health information private 18
Slide notes:Like other health care providers, nurses need to understand their legal responsibilities. Five important legal issues for nurses are informed consent, patient privacy, documentation, dosing, and reporting. Before caring for a patient, in most cases the nurse must make sure that the patient understands the planned treatment and its risks and benefits. If possible, the patient should sign a document showing that he or she has provided informed consent for the treatment. Nurses, along with other health care providers, also must protect the privacy of a patients health records. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA [hip-uh], states that providers may share a patients health information only with people who are authorized to see it. The nurse may be involved with working with the patient in signing various HIPAA forms. 18