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. 2013 Dec;7(12):2814-7.
doi: 10.7860/JCDR/2013/7737.3886. Epub 2013 Nov 18.

Legal awareness and responsibilities of nursing staff in administration of patient care in a trust hospital

Hemant Kumar  1 , Gokhale  2 , Kalpana Jain  3 , D R Mathur  4
Affiliations

Legal awareness and responsibilities of nursing staff in administration of patient care in a trust hospital

Hemant Kumar et al. J Clin Diagn Res. 2013 Dec.

Abstract

Introduction: The enactment of various legal provisions like Consumer Protection Act, Right to Information Act and standardization of procedures and practices have brought nursing care under legal ambit. Needless to say, the level of legal awareness amidst nursing staff in India is abysmally low. Present study was undertaken to assess the level of legal awareness and responsibilities of nursing staff in administration of patient care at a trust hospital.

Methods: An open ended questionnaire was prepared to assess the level of legal awareness among the nursing staff. The GNM and ANM nursing staff deployed at the nursing home and general wards only were randomly screened and specialty nurses were exempted.

Results: The knowledge on various legal provisions, as was applicable to nursing, across all categories of nurses which were under review, was found to be poor. The nursing staff had poor knowledge on patients' rights and also on their legal obligations towards patients. The GNM nurses fared better than ANM nurses. However, 46.67 % of nurses were found to be aware about cases of omission or commission.

Conclusion: This study substantiated the fact that nurses had poor knowledge on the law that governed their profession and that in days to come, it would become increasingly difficult for them to avoid law suits which were prepared against them, unless remedial actions were taken.

Keywords: Consumer protection act; Immunity; Negligence.

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Legal knowledge based on nursing qualification
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Legal knowledge based on experience
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Legal knowledge based on age
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Knowledge of nursing care and procedures based on Qualification
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Knowledge of nursing care and procedures based on experience
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Knowledge of nursing care and procedures based on age
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Awareness about complaints in hospitals and their disposal
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References

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    1. Consumer Protection Act 1986.Right To Information Act 2005 (RTI)

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