Which key points would the nurse keep in mind about the legal implications of nursing practice

"The American Nurses Association (ANA) code of ethics ensures that the code remains constant."

The American Nurses Association (ANA) code of ethics reviews and revises the code regularly to reflect changes in practice. The basic principles of the ANA code (such as responsibility, accountability, advocacy, and confidentiality) remain constant. A nurse's point of view offers a unique voice in the resolution of ethical dilemmas by including knowledge based upon clinical and psychosocial observations. Professional nursing promotes accountability, responsibility, advocacy, and confidentiality. Standards ethics in healthcare consist of autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice, and fidelity.

As discussed earlier in this chapter, nurses can be reprimanded or have their licenses revoked for not appropriately following the Nurse Practice Act in the state they are practicing. Nurses can also be held legally liable for negligence, malpractice, or breach of patient confidentiality when providing patient care.
If a nurse uses restraints without a legal warrant on a client, he/she may be charged with false imprisonment. Libel is the written defamation of character. Negligence is any conduct that falls below the standard of care. Malpractice is a type of negligence that is regarded as professional negligence.
The nurse owes the same duties to self as to others, including the responsibility to promote health and safety, preserve wholeness of character and integrity, maintain competence, and continue personal and professional growth. A nurse must also demonstrate care for self as well as others.
Which of the following legal defenses is the most important for a nurse to develop? The concept of accountability is of high priority in nursing practice. As a licensed professional, the nurse is always accountable, which means liable and answerable for his or her actions.