Topic > Sources of Law in the United States: Nursing Practice, Medical Malpractice, and Negligence

There are four major sources of law within the United States legal system. These include Statutes, (judicial) Case Law, Constitution and Administrative Regulations. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Within the source of laws under the Statutes, it includes state legislatures, Congress, as well as county and municipal governments. State legislatures will pass state laws, while local or county governments will pass laws that apply only to their specific localities. Statutes are made to pronounce, order or prohibit laws within each of their localities. An example of statutory law is when you obtain your nursing license. Case law (judicial) is another source of laws in the United States. These case laws consist of opinions that will help determine the various decisions issued by the court and will help shape and determine the current law. For example, the Supreme Court's ruling on same-sex marriage helped shape current law. The Constitution now recognizes this right. Judicial laws are developed by the judicial system and clarify legal issues that are in debate (Guido, 2014). The Constitution is another source of laws. Within the Constitution are the laws established for government. These laws set the limits of what the government can and cannot do. This limits the overall power of the government. The Constitution is called the backbone of the legal system in the United States because it affirms the fundamental freedoms and rights of individuals, including nurses (Fremgen, 2019). The Constitution prevails over laws that might contradict it. So that no law will be passed if it violates the constitution. Other sources of laws include administrative regulations. These are basically the rules and procedures of various government agencies. These laws focus not on what is done, but on how things are done. An example of an administrative regulation would be the number of days given to someone to file a constitutional free speech complaint. There are many different administrative bodies that make rules about how laws should and will be enforced. The legislative branch gives the power to develop these rules to the executive branch to develop these rules (Fremgen, 2019). Although the legislature is able to remove this power through legislative action. The legislative sources discussed above support and protect nursing practice. Licenses are granted to each group of healthcare professionals by the state or government. Regulations and laws for each that outline their scope of application. Since constitutional law establishes the right to life for every individual, this requires nurses and other healthcare professionals to protect life at all costs (Fremgen, 2019). Nurses were identified as a profession in 1975, which helped identify nurses as deserving of protection by state laws and influenced how nursing is practiced under the law. Later that same year, nurses began receiving complaints of negligence against them. This negligence was considered negligence. Therefore, the law required nurses to use nursing principles to provide care to their patients. Each state has statutes that offer protection to their nurses, and that state's court will determine the laws. DifferentState statutes and federal laws can impact nursing practice differently. Others impose accountability. Healthcare professionals and nurses should be informed about the different legal risks regarding the care of their patients. They should follow the state nursing practice law to the hilt (Shecaira, 2015). There are several classifications of law, including civil law, common law, public law, criminal law, procedural law, and substantive law. Civil law is commonly involved in the nursing profession. Within civil law, tort law is a specific division that the nursing profession must be familiar with. This is the area of ​​law that is most often affiliated with negligence claims. This often occurs when nurses wrongfully injure a patient and may have to compensate patients they may have harmed. (Guido, 2014). This is why civil law is commonly used to assist in establishing the rules and regulations of practice. This is done to prevent similar injuries from recurring. This is all necessary because of how often people sue for anything. Some fail to consider the many reasons why errors occur. Some examples include short staffing, long working hours, and simple human errors. One of the most controversial topics in healthcare ethics are those related to medical malpractice and malpractice. Nurses must therefore be very diligent when caring for their patients. The definition of negligence is described as the unethical and improper practice of one's profession. Negligence is usually defined as the failure to use diligence and caution (Shecaira, 2015). Negligence is sometimes referred to as not doing the right thing at the right time. While negligence is described as professionals not practicing to standards of care causing harm to clients. This is sometimes due to a lack of skills in one's profession. Medical negligence occurs when a medical professional intentionally fails to provide acceptable standards of care to their patients and results in injury or death (Raz, 2013). Medical negligence occurs when a medical professional ignores his or her responsibilities and causes injury or sometimes death. These professionals do not intend to cause harm, but through ignorance or lack of action end up harming them. Cases of medical ignorance sometimes involve unintentional errors or oversights (Shecaira, 2015). Medical malpractice and medical malpractice can be interchangeable. Both require medical professionals and their actions or lack of actions that could cause injury or possibly death to their patients. These cases can be brought to court if there is enough evidence to do so (Raz, 2013). Medical malpractice and malpractice cases are generally extremely complex. They require trained special lawyers to determine whether a case falls into the category of medical malpractice or medical malpractice. When compensation claims are successfully filed by victims of medical malpractice and/or medical malpractice, damages are awarded in order to compensate the victims. Payments are made to cover the costs of current and future medical expenses. These damages may also include compensation for a few different items. These include loss of current wages, future earning capacity and in many cases compensation for mental distress or suffering. The court requires medical professionals to pay punitive damages if found guilty of medical malpractice (Raz, 2013). Sometimes it is useful to hire a medical witness to increase the chances of, 28(1), 15-30.