5.2 Understanding the Legal System
Understanding the Legal System
There are several types of laws and regulations that affect nursing practice. Laws are rules and regulations created by a society and enforced by courts and professional licensure boards. Nurses are responsible for being aware of public and private laws that affect client care, as well as legal actions that can result when these laws are broken.
Laws are generally classified as public or private law. Public law regulates relations of individuals with the government or institutions, whereas private law governs the relationships between private parties.
Public Law
There are several types of public law, including constitutional, statutory, administrative, and criminal law.
- Constitutional law refers to the rights, privileges, and responsibilities established by the U.S. Constitution.[1] The right to privacy is an example of a client right based on constitutional law.
- Statutory law refers to written laws enacted by the federal or state legislature. For example, the Nurse Practice Act in each state is an example of statutory law enacted by that state’s legislature. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is an example of a federal statutory law. HIPAA required the creation of national standards to protect sensitive client health information from being disclosed without the client’s consent or knowledge.
- Administrative law is law created by government agencies that have been granted the authority to establish rules and regulations to protect the public.[2] An example of federal administrative law is the regulations set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). OSHA was established by Congress to ensure safe and healthy working conditions for employees by setting and enforcing federal standards. An example of administrative law at the state level is the State Board of Nursing (SBON). The SBON is a group of individuals in each state, established by that state’s legislature, to develop, review, and enforce the Nurse Practice Act. The SBON also issues nursing licenses to qualified candidates, investigates reports of nursing misconduct, and implements consequences for nurses who have violated the Nurse Practice Act.
- Criminal law is a system of laws concerned with punishment of individuals who commit crimes.[3] A crime is a behavior defined by Congress or state legislature as deserving of punishment. Crimes are classified as felonies, misdemeanors, and infractions. Conviction for a crime requires evidence to show the defendant is guilty “beyond a reasonable doubt.” This means the prosecution must convince a jury there is no reasonable explanation other than guilty that can come from the evidence presented at trial. In the United States, an individual is considered innocent until proven guilty. See Figure 5.1[4] for an illustration of a trial with a jury.
Serious crimes that can result in imprisonment for longer than one year are called felonies