Chapter 3

Question 1

What is ethics?

Answer 1

The knowledge of right and wrong.

Question 2

What are laws?

Answer 2

Rules set by the government to help people live peacefully together and to ensure order and safety.

Question 3

What is the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA)?

Answer 3

A law passed by the federal government that includes minimum standards for nursing assistant training, staffing requirements, resident assessment instructions, and information on rights for residents.

Question 4

What is the Minimum Data Set (MDS)?

Answer 4

A detailed form with guidelines for assessing residents in long-term care facilities.

Question 5

What are Residents’ Rights?

Answer 5

Numerous rights identified in the OBRA law that relate to how residents must be treated while living in a facility; they provide an ethical code of conduct for healthcare workers.

Question 6

What is informed consent?

Answer 6

The process in which a person, with the help of a doctor, makes informed decisions about his or her health care.

Question 7

What is neglect?

Answer 7

The failure to provide needed care that results in physical, mental, or emotional harm to a person.

Question 8

What is active neglect?

Answer 8

The purposeful failure to provide needed care, resulting in harm to a person.

Question 9

What is passive neglect?

Answer 9

The unintentional failure to provide needed care, resulting in physical, mental, or emotional harm to a person.

Question 10

What is negligence?

Answer 10

Actions, or the failure to act or provide the proper care, that result in unintended injury to a person.

Question 11

What is malpractice?

Answer 11

Injury to a person due to professional misconduct through negligence, carelessness, or lack of skill.

Question 12

What is abuse?

Answer 12

Purposeful mistreatment that causes physical, mental, or emotional pain or injury to someone.

Question 13

What is physical abuse?

Answer 13

Any treatment, intentional or not, that causes harm to a person’s body.

Question 14

What is psychological abuse?

Answer 14

Emotional harm caused by threatening, scaring, humiliating, intimidating, isolating, or insulting a person, or by treating him or her as a child.

Question 15

What is verbal abuse?

Answer 15

The use of spoken or written words, pictures, or gestures that threaten, embarrass, or insult a person.

Question 16

What is assault?

Answer 16

A threat to harm a person, resulting in the person feeling fearful that he or she will be harmed.

Question 17

What is battery?

Answer 17

The intentional touching of a person without his or her consent.

Question 18

What is sexual abuse?

Answer 18

The forcing of a person to perform or participate in sexual acts against his or her will; includes unwanted touching, exposing oneself, and sharing pornographic material.

Question 19

What is financial abuse?

Answer 19

The improper or illegal use of a person’s money, possessions, property, or other assets.

Question 20

What is domestic violence?

Answer 20

Physical, sexual, or emotional abuse by spouses, intimate partners, or family members.

Question 21

What is workplace violence?

Answer 21

Verbal, physical, or sexual abuse of staff by other staff members, residents or visitors.

Question 22

What is false imprisonment?

Answer 22

The unlawful restraint of someone that affects the person’s freedom of movement; includes both the threat of being physically restrained and actually being physically restrained.

Question 23

What is involuntary seclusion?

Answer 23

The separation of a person from others against the person’s will.

Question 24

What is sexual harassment?

Answer 24

Any unwelcome sexual advance or behavior that creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.

Question 25

What is substance abuse?

Answer 25

The repeated use of legal or illegal substances in a way that is harmful to oneself or others.

Question 26

Who are mandated reporters?

Answer 26

People who are legally required to report suspected or observed abuse or neglect because they have regular contact with vulnerable populations, such as the elderly in care facilities.

Question 27

What is an ombudsman?

Answer 27

A legal advocate for residents in long-term care facilities who helps resolve disputes and settle conflicts.

Question 28

What is confidentiality?

Answer 28

The legal and ethical principle of keeping information private.

Question 29

What is protected health information (PHI)?

Answer 29

A person’s private health information, which includes name, address, telephone number, social security number, email address, and medical record number.

Question 30

What are advance directives?

Answer 30

Legal documents that allow people to decide what medical care they wish to have if they are unable to make those decisions themselves.

Question 31

What is a living will?

Answer 31

A document that outlines the medical care a person wants, or does not want, in case he becomes unable to make those decisions.

Question 32

What is a durable power of attorney for health care?

Answer 32

A signed, dated, and witnessed legal document that appoints someone else to make the medical decisions for a person in the event he or she becomes unable to do so.

Question 33

What is a do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order?

Answer 33

A medical order that instructs medical professionals not to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in the event of cardiac or respiratory arrest.

Question 34

What is Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST)?

Answer 34

A medical order that specifies the treatments a person wishes to receive, not what he wishes to avoid, when he is very ill; decisions are based on conversations between the patient and his healthcare providers.