Legal status as of 1 January 2013.
The publication discusses the legal and professional status of nursing practitioners, including, among other issues:
- The legal prerequisites for practising as a nurse and the consequences of not fulfilling them,
- nurse education,
- the provision of health services without a medical order and on medical orders,
- nurse's duty to provide assistance versus refusal to provide assistance,
- Nurses' duties to provide information and obtain patient consent for health services,
- keeping and sharing of medical records,
- nursing confidentiality versus the patient's right to confidentiality of information relating to them,
- respect for the dignity and intimacy of the patient,
- the legal liability of the nurse - civil, criminal, professional and occupational
- and activities and appearances before the provincial medical incident adjudication committee.
The rights and duties of the nurse are discussed in relation to the rights and duties of other health professions, particularly the doctor, and to the rights of the patient, and based on numerous examples of problems that the author encounters in her practice as an advisor to the President of the Council of the Supreme Council of Nurses and Midwives.
The publication further explains issues such as:
- attempts to recruit people from other professions, such as midwives and paramedics, as nurses,
- the nurse's failure to declare a return to practice after the statutory deadline,
- responsibilities of postgraduate training providers.
The book is intended for nursing practitioners and managers managing nursing staff. It should also be of interest to human resources staff in medical institutions, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate nursing students.