2 Comments. Individuals required by state law to report suspected neglect or abuse of children, adults at risk, and the elderly. Philadelphia: W.B. When you visit a nursing home resident, you should keep an eye out for certain warning signs. Negligence is the failure to act or follow laws, policies or procedures (whether intentional or unintentional). Economic injuries can include lost wages, additional medical expenses, rehabilitation, durable medical expenses, the need for architectural changes to ones home, the loss of earning capacity, the need to hire people to perform tasks the plaintiff can no longer do, and the loss of financial support. She is a member of several legal and nursing professional associations, including the American Nurses Association, Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, the Illinois State Bar Association, and The American Association of Nurse Attorneys (TAANA). Assault/Battery. So I didn't mean to do it, but it still caused harm. Assault is defined as intentionally putting another person in reasonable apprehension of an imminent harmful or offensive contact. So that is a very important distinction. If a nursing home attendant surprises the patient and pushes the patient from behind, that would qualify as battery. If words are accompanied by a show of force that would give a person reason to fear or expect immediate bodily harm, then an assault would take place. In Florida, assault offenses are charged as second-degree misdemeanors. Criminal cases are prosecuted by the state for the purpose of safeguarding public welfare. ; Battery, on the other hand, is when someone commits an act that actually inflicts harmful or offensive contact on the victim. while knowing that it was untrue. Assault refers to the wrong act of causing someone to reasonably fear imminent harm. The punishment of battery charge against a person is very tough as compared to assault. An assault is when a person commits an act that puts a victim in reasonable apprehension of harmful or offensive contact. Nancy J. Brent (with three contributors) 2. I don't have to have that. The nature of the offence, the circumstances in which it occurred and the type of injury sustained will determine the charge that is laid. Adhere to organizational policies and procedures. Assault: assault is charged with imprisonment for up to six months and / or a maximum fine of $1,000. Battery is a criminal offence in a number of countries. Additionally, nurses are held accountable for foreseeability, meaning a nurse of ordinary skill, care, and diligence could anticipate the risk of harm of departing from standards of practice in similar circumstances. So this is making derogatory remarks that harm somebody's reputation or character within a community or just has the potential to do that. Where the doctor or nurse fails to meet the standard, he or she is negligent. Some state laws make it optional for clinicians to inform parents/guardians if their child is seeking services related to sexual health care, substance use, or mental health care. Most malpractice lawsuits name physicians or hospitals as defendants, although nurses can be individually named. The difference between ABH and common assault is that ABH requires a degree of injury whereas common assault does not. Going back to our example . throws a vase or large object toward the victim and misses, or. Assault is the causing of a reasonable apprehension of an imminent harmful or offensive contact. Dont take our word for it, though! Unlike assault, battery occurs without warning or fear. Okay, last, on card 11 we are talking about mandatory reporting. This includes assault vs. battery, slander vs. libel, and false imprisonment. Injuries can be physical, emotional, financial, professional, marital, or any combination of these. This includes assault vs. battery, slander vs. libel, and false imprisonment. It can be very difficult to prevent or stop abuse in situations when the victim feels afraid or secluded and does not report what is happening to supervisors or their family. The law treats false imprisonment (which includes unlawful restraint), battery (which includes contact with another person without lawful excuse) as forms of assault. So for instance, if the person who I believe could be abusing this patient is in this room, they may be putting my patient at risk for further harm, so I may need to ask them to leave, or separate them or get security involved, those sorts of things. This is a plan for the patient to escape at a later time, including what to do, where to go, what kind of "go bag" to pack. Okay, next up is false imprisonment. After three years of doing defense work at the firm, Brent decided to establish a private practice in 1986. Dec 19, 2009. If it was, please go ahead and like the video. Unwanted physical contact. A court finds an assault against a person if they; The Person strikes, touch, moves or apply any force to another person; Directly or indirectly. This is a helpful stipulation because abuse can be hard to prove with concrete evidence; evidence could take inordinate time to gather, and so not having to concretely prove the abuse allows the nurse to help the possibly abused patient sooner. Your support ID is: 17922919554534453148. If you put a patient in seclusion without having a medical order for it, then that would be false imprisonment. Slander and libel are intentional torts. Our #fundamentals Flashcards are available at https://bit.ly/fundamentalscardsSHOP ALL OUR FLASHCARDS http://bit.ly/allstudycards Our NCLEX Pack is your #1 Resource to get through nursing school and to pass the NCLEX. Updated: December 07, 2022 Nancy J. Brent, RN, MS, JD, a nurse attorney in private law practice in Wilmette, IL, represents nurses and other health care providers before the state agency that regulates health professionals. July 12, 2021 assault occasioning bodily harm. Nurses defending themselves against allegations of professional malpractice must demonstrate that their actions conformed with accepted standards of practice. Taxes and shipping calculated at checkout, Add description, images, menus and links to your mega menu, A column with no settings can be used as a spacer, Link to your collections, sales and even external links, by Cathy Parkes March 19, 2021 Updated: December 29, 2021. Assault is threatening a patient, Battery is following through with that threat. So definitely check that out if you need a refresher on those concepts. After accusing the staff of abuse, they may act in retaliation against the patient. That would be negligence - where you had a duty to act, for instance, and then you failed to act in the correct capacity. Since then she has built a team of top-notch dedicated nurses and nurse educators who are focused on improving nursing education and supporting career advancement for nurses everywhere. With the specific penalties assigned to varying levels of assault, aggravating factors that will cause more severe sentencing can be identified. Nursing: Mental Health and Community Concepts by Chippewa Valley Technical College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. 2023 For example, in nursing, if you made an internet post about the aforementioned gossip known to be false, or printed out signs about it and hung them up in the hospital, and you knew these statements were untrue, that would be libel. An assault can occur without any other intentional tort. So there's a couple of different kinds, and these get pretty tricky for nursing students sometimes. This required the perpetrator to have the means or ability to carry out his threat, making the victim's fear valid, and no actual physical contact was required. Libel is any defamation of character that is written. Verbal threats to keep an individual in an inpatient environment can also qualify as false imprisonment and should be avoided. The elements of battery are Battery. These actions go against some or all of the nursing ethics we covered earlier in this series. An intentional tort is a willful act that violates a patient's rights. Taxes and shipping calculated at checkout, Add description, images, menus and links to your mega menu, A column with no settings can be used as a spacer, Link to your collections, sales and even external links, by Meris Shuwarger BSN, RN, CEN, TCRN But not all acts of offensive touching need result in visible harm to be considered assault and battery. There is slander and there is libel. A battery can occur when the individual is actually touched or when any extension of his body is touched without permission or there is a wrongful contact (e.g., clothing). In nursing torts, battery is the touching of a patient, without consent, that causes harm. Assault is a threat, a threat made against a patient that makes them fearful. Avoiding Liability Bulletin January 15, 2015. The plaintiff must claim the nurse did something a reasonably prudent nurse would not have done (an act of commission) or failed to do something a reasonable nurse would have done (an act of omission). Assault is verbal, battery is physical. In nursing, abandonment is the desertion of a patient by anyone who has taken responsibility for their care. All of the following elements must be established in a court of law to prove malpractice[16]: In the work environment, a duty is created when the nurse accepts responsibility for a patient and establishes a nurse-patient relationship. Battery is defined as intentional causation of harmful or offensive contact with another person without that persons consent. In most states, an assault/battery is committed when one person 1) tries to or does physically strike another, or 2) acts in a threatening manner to put another in fear of immediate harm. Battery is covered as a part of a broader overview on intentional torts in ourFundamentals of Nursing Flashcardsto help you learn and retain the key Fundamentals information you need for the ATI, HESI, and NCLEX. Define "aggravated assault" as: an assault made with a deadly weapon without intent to kill or with an intent to commit a felony on the victim ( 784.021, F.S.) If a nurse forcibly administers medication without a patient's consent, it could be ruled assault or battery in a court of law. Whether the victim received the assault from a caregiver, a visiting family member, or another resident, it is up to others that are close to the victim to help him get protection from the abuser. As an example, a patient who is unconscious could not successfully allege an assault had taken place by a nurse because the patient was unaware of the potential harmful contact. If a nurse suspects abuse is occurring, they are NOT required to have proof or concrete evidence, which means they don't carry the "burden of proof." Protected Health Information (PHI) is defined as individually identifiable health information, including demographic data, that relates to the individuals past, present, or future physical or mental health or condition; the provision of health care to the individual; and the past, present, or future payment for the provision of health care to the individual.[8]. As per Zanker v Vartzokaz, the nurse's actions amount to assault because the direct and intentional . As the name may suggest, these are unintended acts that may cause a patient harm. When someone punches, pushes, kicks, pinches, and slaps another person, they have committed battery. They have a legal obligation to treat a patient in a manner that meets the standard of care. This includes assessing and predicting the patients threat of violence towards another person or groups of people and taking action to protect the identified victims.[11]. (2) There is no requirement of actual contact with the person. Philadelphia: W.B. Nurses and other health professionals are referred to as mandated reporters because they are required by state law to report suspected neglect or abuse of children, adults at risk, and the elderly. The defendant must exhibit a present intention to harm or offend the victim through a physical act. Now an intentional tort is a willful act that violates a patient's rights. Cathy explains the difference between assault and battery, 2 important intentional torts to know in nursing school.Cathy Parkes BSN, RN, CWCN, PHN covers Ass. This includes following organizational policies and procedures, maintaining clinical competency, and confining their activities to the authorized scope of practice as defined by their states Nurse Practice Act. If a patient refuses treatment and there is no threat to his life or well-being, do not force treatment, notify those who need to be notified, and document the refusal and the notifications; Never threaten a patient or a family member in any way or act in a menacing manner toward the patient or family member; Never hold a patient down to force treatment or administer a medication; Never threaten to hit a patient or family member or actually do so; and. One is the crime of making contact with an individual, while the other is threatening an individual. , on. This information on reporting suspicion of abuse is for your nursing exams and nursing practice. forces you to see an act of gross indecency, for . An intentional tort that occurs when an individual is deceived for personal gain. They are open for calls 24 hours a day. Be sure to subscribe to the channel so that you can be kept up-to-date with all of our new content. Nurse strikes the patient and throws him onto the bed causing the patient to sustain a fracture of his hand. and compare those stories. 9235 Katy Freeway, Suite 160, Houston,TX 77024, THIS WEBSITE IS A PAID LEGAL ADVERTISMENT. Arrests for criminal activity outside of the workplace are also grounds for discipline by the Louisiana Nursing Board. After she got her BSN and started working as an RN at Scripps Encinitas Hospital, she started this YouTube channel to help nursing students around the world. [9] See Figure 5.3[10] for a depiction of confidentiality. [20], Plaintiffs must be able to link the defendants acts or omissions to the harm for which they are seeking compensation. Deviation from the Nurse Practice Act is a breach of contract that can lead to limited or revoked licensure. The inverse is also truenurses have a duty to warn when their patient might harm someone else. This is going to be desertion of a patient by anyone who has taken responsibility for their care. Here we'll define some of the legal violations in the nursing practice, including intentional and unintentional torts. Slander is spoken but libel is written, like a book in the library. So let's get started. ATI and Test of Essential Academic Skills are registered trademarks of Assessment Technologies Institute, which is unaffiliated, not a sponsor, or associated with Cathy Parkes or this website. Assault is threatening a patient, Battery is following through with that threat.. For example, in nursing, if you were to gossip about a patient aloud to another nurse, "Did you hear that this patient did such-and-such?" A battery is an intentional and wrongful physical contact with another person without that persons consent that includes some injury or offensive touching. This is also knowledge you need for the NCLEX! Therefore, all types of client information and data should be shared only with health care team members who are actively providing care to them. This may be evidenced by a consent form, when needed, or simply by asking the patient if you can take his blood pressure, change his bandage, or administer his medications; Brent, Nancy J. When an individual makes negative, malicious, and false remarks about another person to damage their reputation. No contact . After a plaintiff has established the first element in a malpractice suit (i.e., the nurse owed a duty to the plaintiff), the plaintiff must demonstrate that the nurse breached that duty by failing to comply with the duty of reasonable care. Brent has published extensively and has lectured across the country in the area of law and nursing practice. To demonstrate that a nurse breached their duty to a patient, the plaintiff must prove the nurse deviated from acceptable standards of practice. Saunders Company, 114-115, 127-128. Cathy explains the difference between assault and battery, 2 important intentional torts to know in nursing school.Cathy Parkes BSN, RN, CWCN, PHN covers Ass. False imprisonment is the act of keeping someone somewhere against their will, when they should otherwise be free to go. (2020, June). 13 Feb 2014. The tort of false imprisonment denies a patient their autonomy; patients have the right to leave even when it's against medical advice. State laws vary, but they generally include a definition of abuse, a list of people required to report abuse, and the government agency designated to receive and investigate the reports. The failure to exercise the ordinary care a reasonable person would use in similar circumstances. For example, when applying HIPAA to mental health inpatient settings, nurses may not answer in the affirmative if someone calls and asks if an individual has been admitted to the unit. So for instance if I am the nurse on duty for a patient and I just decide I'm going home, and I don't care over to anybody else, that's abandonment. If consent is not established, there may be legal consequences for health professionals. Sign up to get the latest on sales, new releases and more , Sign up to get the latest study tips, Cathy videos, new releases and more. A system of laws that punishes individuals who commit crimes. Unlike criminal cases, where the standard of proof is beyond reasonable doubt, the elements of a malpractice lawsuit must be proven by a preponderance of evidence. Expert testimony is required to demonstrate medical certainty that the nurses breach was the cause of an actual injury. Our flashcards are the best you can buy. ATTORNEY JEFF MEYER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONTENT OF THIS ADVERTISMENT.JEFF MEYER IS LICENSED IN TEXAS AND CALIFORNIA. Stop Abuse.National Center on Elder Abuse. I need to document that. (7 days ago) The most common example of medical battery occurs when a doctor performs a non-emergency medical procedure without getting the patient's consent first. For example, in Wisconsin, suspected neglect or abuse is reported to Child Protective Services (CPS), Adult Protective Services, or law enforcement. HIPAA regulations extend beyond medical records and apply to client information shared with others. The Tort of Battery. Confidentiality is the right of an individual to have personal, identifiable medical information, referred to as protected health information, kept private. In contrast, the battery is a criminal offence when a person actually harms others by punching or kicking. . So for instance, if I didn't check a medication before administering it, if I didn't verify that what the label says is what I'm supposed to be giving, that's malpractice, and that is something that is very important that we understand so that we can try to do our best to avoid those acts. Categories: Criminal Defense. To prove a medical battery claim, it would be best to look at the elements of a traditional battery case. Intentionally putting another person in reasonable apprehension of an imminent harmful or offensive contact. In Canadian law Section 267, physical harm is similar to Battery. IF LEGAL OR OTHER ADVICE IS NEEDED, THE READER IS ENCOURAGED TO SEEK SUCH ADVICE FROM A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL. ABH and GBH (grievous bodily harm) are terms used . American Journal of Nursing . State laws determine what information is considered confidential and what requires reporting to law enforcement or Child Protective Services, such as child abuse, gunshot or stabbing wounds, sexually transmitted infections, abortions, suicidal ideation, and homicidal ideation. Read additional information about signs of child and elder abuse in the Trauma, Abuse, and Violence chapter. Failure to Communicate. Thanks so much for watching, and happy studying! Maintain professional boundaries. ATI and Test of Essential Academic Skills are registered trademarks of Assessment Technologies Institute, which is unaffiliated, not a sponsor, or associated with Cathy Parkes or this website. Assault and battery allegations are fairly easy to avoid if you keep certain things in mind when working with patients and their families: There are defenses available to you if a patient alleges you have assaulted him or her or committed a battery on the patient. Adults at risk are adults who have a physical or mental condition that impairs their ability to care for their own needs. So false imprisonment is keeping somebody somewhere against their will, when they should otherwise be free to go. The Atlanta sexual assault victim lawyers at Wetherington Law Firm can explain your legal rights in a consultation and help you know the best path to take to hold your assailant accountable. The standard of practice is to adhere to agency policy. Suesquatch said: Very simple. March 20, 2015. 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