NURS 414 - Legal Issues in Nursing Practice

Units: 1
Legal issues in nursing and health care, including the Registered Nurse as client advocate. An overview of the American governmental system, California Nursing Practice Act, and relevant areas of civil and criminal law will be included.

Prerequisites: B.S. Nursing major and all of: NURS 320, NURS 321, NURS 322, NURS 326, NURS 327.
Possible Instructional Methods: On-ground, or Hybrid, or Online-Asynchronous.
Grading: A-F grading only.
Course Typically Offered: Fall & Spring

Student Learning Outcomes - Upon successful completion of this course students will be able to:

Demonstrate an understanding of the California Nursing Practice Act, the effect of performing functions and procedures beyond those authorized in the laws defining the California Registered Nurse’s Scope of Practice, and explain the Registered Nurse’s rights and responsibilities.
Understand the areas of civil and criminal law that most frequently arise in clinical nursing practice and how to avoid common errors.
Integrate evidence, law and interprofessional perspectives in evaluating outcomes of healthcare case law decisions, and discuss how to uphold patients’ rights to privacy and to make health care decisions through compliance with applicable laws.
Describe legal processes used to resolve identified nursing practice discrepancies between identified standards and nursing practice that may adversely impact patient outcomes, and how to avoid nursing malpractice by applying professional healthcare risk management principles.