Nurse's Legal Handbook

From The Critics

Reviewer: Linda A. Moore, MSN, EdD(University of North Carolina-Charlotte)
Description: This handbook discusses the nurse's legal responsibility and accountability for commissions and omissions of nursing practice. Court cases demonstrate the concepts described and ethical considerations are discussed in several separate chapters.
Purpose: The purposes are to provide basic information on laws governing nursing, obligations related to patient's rights, legal responsibilities and risks encountered by nurses, off-duty legal risks, malpractice, documentation, employee rights, and information on ethical guidelines for nursing practice.
Audience: The handbook is written for nurses in a wide variety of settings, although it primarily focuses on hospital settings and physician offices. Registered nurses and graduate nursing students will benefit significantly from this resource. Although LPNs and LVNs are mentioned throughout the handbook as potential readers, this book would better serve nurses developing protocols and guidelines for documentation and leaders in nursing practice.
Features: The significant features of this handbook include clear historical examples of legal cases demonstrating specific points. The major issues and specific legal rights are highlighted in each chapter. The index and table of contents provide clear descriptors and location of content. The appendixes provide an excellent glossary and detailed alphabetical list of court cases described in the text.
Assessment: This edition provides current literature citations at the end of each chapter. Although many of the court case citations are less recent than the literature citations, they do describe significant information upon which to base one's legal and ethical decisions.

Linda A. Moore

This handbook discusses the nurse's legal responsibility and accountability for commissions and omissions of nursing practice. Court cases demonstrate the concepts described and ethical considerations are discussed in several separate chapters. The purposes are to provide basic information on laws governing nursing, obligations related to patient's rights, legal responsibilities and risks encountered by nurses, off-duty legal risks, malpractice, documentation, employee rights, and information on ethical guidelines for nursing practice. The handbook is written for nurses in a wide variety of settings, although it primarily focuses on hospital settings and physician offices. Registered nurses and graduate nursing students will benefit significantly from this resource. Although LPNs and LVNs are mentioned throughout the handbook as potential readers, this book would better serve nurses developing protocols and guidelines for documentation and leaders in nursing practice. The significant features of this handbook include clear historical examples of legal cases demonstrating specific points. The major issues and specific legal rights are highlighted in each chapter. The index and table of contents provide clear descriptors and location of content. The appendixes provide an excellent glossary and detailed alphabetical list of court cases described in the text. This edition provides current literature citations at the end of each chapter. Although many of the court case citations are less recent than the literature citations, they do describe significant information upon which to base one's legal and ethical decisions.

3 Stars from Doody