HLTENN041 - Apply legal and ethical parameters to nursing practice

For Melbourne campuses

Assessment tasks will be designed to reinforce & extend knowledge and skill competence within set & controlled parameters in accordance with each unit’s learning outcomes & performance criteria requirements, including the setting of work based practical application tasks designed to provide evidence of competence outcomes, within periodic and scheduled timelines.

Students will be expected to demonstrate the following required skills:
• work within and reflect on the legal and ethical parameters that apply to professional nursing practice in one documented situation in the workplace
• work within and reflect on the legal and ethical parameters that apply to professional nursing practice in one documented situation related to an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person.

The tasks must be undertaken in accordance with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) professional practice standards, codes and guidelines.

Students will also be expected to demonstrate the following knowledge:
• national, State or Territory and local legal and ethical considerations relevant to the nursing profession, and how these are applied in nursing practice:
• vulnerable person check
• role of the NMBA in regulating the nursing profession including:
• code of ethics for nurses in Australia
• code of conduct for nurses
• decision-making framework
• enrolled nurse standards for practice
• nursing guidelines and practice fact sheets
• role of the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM)
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and principles of cultural safety
• continuing professional education opportunities
• direct and indirect discrimination and its implications
• duty of care
• equal employment opportunity (EEO)
• human rights including access to health care
• informed consent
• anti-discrimination legislation
• declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
• insurance requirements including professional indemnity insurance arrangements for enrolled nurses
• life and death issues:
• power of attorney
• living wills and advanced directives
• guardianship
• mandatory reporting
• privacy, confidentiality and disclosure
• policy frameworks for nursing practice
• social media policy and the potential implications on ethics, professionalism and nursing
• Commonwealth and State or Territory legislation and legal provisions that affect the development of nursing programs and provision of services and procedures:
• Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Act (the National Law) enacted in each State or Territory
• National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards
• health legislation relating to drugs, medicines and poisons
• mental health legislation
• Privacy Act
• Health Records Act
• Aged Care Act
• carers recognition legislation
• Criminal Code Act
• Disability Discrimination Act and associated anti-discrimination legislation
• children and young people legislation enacted in each State or Territory
• working with children legislation as enforced in each State or Territory
• workplace health and safety (WHS) legislation
• ethical decision making models
• contemporary ethical concepts and principles in nursing:
• autonomy
• beneficence and non-maleficence
• confidentiality
• justice
• rights
• veracity
• application of ethical principles to enrolled nurse practice:
• definitions of ethics, bioethics and nursing ethics
• theoretical concepts informing ethical conduct
• ethical issues in relation to:
• voluntary assisted dying.
• advanced care directive.
• abortion
• tissue transplantation.
• reproductive technology.
• organ donation.
• restraint
• open disclosure
• quality of life
• conscientious objection
• abuse
• consent
• artificially prolonging life.
• refusal and withdrawal of treatment.
• stem cell research.
• cultural and religious matters.
• application of the law to enrolled nurse practice including:
• civil, common and statute law, the court system, precedents and sources.
• law of torts including negligence, trespass, assault and battery, types of consent, valid consent, legal and intellectual, capacity, clinical incapacity, false imprisonment and defamation
• common legal terms including vicarious liability, defendant, plaintiff, harassment, expert witness, coronial inquests, functions of the coroner and giving evidence to the coroner.