COURSE INFORMATION

This online course is designed for certified legal nurse consultants. It is a comprehensive course and explores in-depth the legal system and the most pressing legal issues confronted today in nursing malpractice cases. Student’s explore comprehensive theory related to issues of negligence and widely expand their base of knowledge in details related to malpractice law and case preparations. Course content is comprehensive and study of the material will provide an excellent review of content appropriate to legal nurse consulting practice, as well as more in-depth knowledge of issues of law.

Course Code: LN 500.

Contact hours of continuing education = 60

Instructor/Course Author: Dominick L. Flarey, Ph.D, MBA, RN,BC, LNC-CS.P

Link to Resume: Resume

TEXTBOOKS: There is one (1) required textbook for this course.

Nursing Practice and the Law: Avoiding Malpractice and Other Legal Risks. By: Mary E. O’Keefe. Philadelphia;F.A. Davis Company:2001. ISBN # 0-8036-0602-8.

Link to Purchase on Amazon.com: click here

TIME FRAME: You are allotted two years from the date of enrollment, to complete this course. There are no set time-frames, other than the two year allotted time. If you do not complete the course within the two-year time-frame, you will be removed from the course and an “incomplete” will be recorded for you in our records. Also, if you would like to complete the course after this two-year expiration time, you would need to register and pay the course tuition fee again.

GRADING: You must achieve a passing score of at least 70% to complete this course and receive the 60 hours of awarded continuing education credit. There are no letter grades assigned. You will receive notice of your total % score. Those who score below the minimum of 70% will be contacted by AIHCP and will be permitted one more attempt to retake the online examination.

BOARD APPROVALS: The American Institute of Health Care Professionals (The Provider) is approved by the California Board of Registered Nurses, Provider number # CEP 15595 for 60 Contact Hours. Access information

Course Refund & AIHCP Policies: access here

ONLINE CLASSROOM RESOURCES AND TOOLS

• Examination Access: there is link to take you right to the online examination program where you can print out your examination and work with it. All examinations are formatted as “open book” tests. When you are ready, you can access the exam program at anytime and click in your responses to the questions. Full information is provided in the online classrooms.
• Student Resource Center: there is a link for access to a web page “Student Resource Center.” The Resource Center provides for easy access to all of our policies/procedures and additional information regarding applying for certification. We also have many links to many outside reference sites, such as online libraries that you may freely access.
• Online Evaluation: there is a link in the classroom where you may access the course evaluation. All students completing a course, must, without exception, complete the course evaluation.
• Faculty Access Information: you will have access to your instructor’s online resume/biography, as well as your instructor’s specific contact information.
• Additional Learning Materials: some faculty have prepared additional “readings” and /or brief lecture notes to enhance your experience. All of these are available in the online classrooms.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Describe the basic structure of our government and its branches and describe the basic structure of state and federal court systems.
• Identify participants in our court system and explain their roles in the judicial process.
• Identify the various claims that may be brought by the patient against a nurse.
• List the forms of discovery available to the patient and the nurse in civil litigation.
• Explain the four elements of malpractice.
• Identify the steps of a medical malpractice lawsuit.
• Describe the defenses to a medical malpractice claim.
• Describe the role of various witnesses testifying in a malpractice lawsuit.
• Describe ethical decision-making models used in nursing practice.
• Discuss major ethical issues in nursing.
• Identify current issues and trends in nursing.
• Explain the relationship between the state nurse practice act and state boards of nursing.
• Identify actions for which the nurse could be disciplined by the Board of Nursing.
• Discuss legal issues that have an impact on the scope of practice of the advanced practice nurse.
• Identify the various elements of the negligence cause of action and analyze fact patterns or scenarios in which the elements are present.
• Identify defenses to the negligence cause of action.
• Recognize sources of nursing standards.
• Explain malpractice law as a minimum enforcement of a higher standard.
• Recognize common situations they give rise to nursing malpractice cases.
• Identify the major categories of vicarious liability, and assess actions they give rise to a lawsuit for this liability.
• Recognize statutory and regulatory requirements for documentation.
• Identify when the nurse becomes legally responsible for the care of patients.
• List the necessary components of adequate patient documentation.
• Identify the difference between confidential and privileged communications.
• Summarize the responsibility of the nursing maintaining patient confidentiality.
• Identify trends in patients rights.
• List the elements of informed consent.
• Discuss the nurse’s role in informed consent and the consequences of an adequate consent.
• Identify the employment laws affecting the nurses employee and as a manager.
• Evaluate the principles of liability that may occur as a result of managed care.
• Define the various methods of alternative dispute resolution used within the healthcare profession.
• Develop a perspective on how the legislative process can help nursing promote quality care.
• Discuss laws, and standards in clinical practice related to advanced practice nursing.
• Identify and assess issues of legal risk in home health nursing.
• Identify and assess issues of legal risk in the long-term care nursing.
• Really present-day case law regarding nurses’ behavior in caring for mentally ill persons.
• Analyze general legal principles that regulate emergency nursing practice.
• Identifies selected federal and state statutes that have a forensic impact on nursing practice.
• Discuss the components of a life care plan as used in patient and family education.
• Identify laws that regulate violence in nursing practice.
• Identify legal duties to reasonably protect the confidentiality of healthcare information.
• Analyze legal and ethical issues relevant to nursing practice within a correctional facility.

COURSE CONTENT:

A brief abstract of content:

• American jurisprudence
• Legal terminology
• The nurse and the legal system
• Ethics in nursing
• Defining nursing practice
• Elements of nursing negligence
• Negligent specific to nursing
• Vicarious liability for nursing negligence
• Documentation
• The nurse-patient relationship
• Patient rights and informed consent
• Nursing law and employment issues in nursing
• Managed care and the law
• Alternate dispute resolution in nursing
• The legislative process
• Advanced practice nursing
• Home health nursing
• Long-term care nursing
• Psychiatric nursing
• Emergency nursing
• Forensic nursing
• Life care planning
• Violence in nursing
• Telecommunications and patient confidentiality
• Correctional nursing