Chapter 3 Terms Flashcards
Abandonment
Ending the care of an injured or ill person without obtaining that patient’s consent or without ensuring that someone with equal or greater training will continue care.
Advance directive
A written instruction, signed by the patient and physician, which documents a patient’s wishes if the patient is unable to communicate his or her wishes.
Applied ethics
The use of ethics in decision-making, applying ethical values.
Assault
A crime that occurs when a person tries to physically harm another in a way that makes the person under attack feel immediately threatened.
Battery
A crime that occurs when there is unlawful touching of a person without the parson’s consent.
Competence
The patient’s ability to understand the EMR’s questions and the implications of the decisions made.
Confidentiality
Protection of a patient’s privacy by not revealing any personal patient information except to law enforcement personnel or EMS personnel caring for the patient.
Consent
Permission to provide care; given by an injured or ill person to a responder.
Do no harm
The principle that people who intervene to help others must do their best to ensure their actions will do no harm to the patient.
Do not resuscitate
A type of advance directive that protects a patient’s right to refuse efforts for resuscitation.
Durable power of attorney for health care
A legal document that expresses a patient’s specific wishes regarding his or her health care; also empowers an individual, usually a relative or friend, to speak on behalf of the patient should he or she become seriously injured or ill and unstable to speak for him or herself.
Duty to act
A legal responsibility of some individuals to provide a reasonable standard of emergency care.
Ethics
A branch of philosophy concerned with the set of moral principles a person holds about what is right and wrong.
Expressed concent
Permission to receive emergency care granted by a competent adult verbally, nonverbally or through gestures.
Good Samaritan laws
Laws that apply in some circumstances to protect people who provide emergency care without accepting anything in return.
Health care proxy
A person names in a heath-care directive, or durable power of attorney for health care, who can make medical decisions on someone else’s behalf.
Implied consent
Legal concepts that assume a patient would consent to receive emergency care if he or she were physically able or old enough to do so.
In good faith
Acting in such a way that the goal is only to help the patient and that all actions are for that purpose.
Legal obligation
Obligation to act in a particular way according to the law.
Living will
A type of advance directive that outlines the patient’s wishes about certain kinds of medical treatments and procedures that prolong life.
Malpractice
A situation in which a professional fails to provide a reasonable quality of care, resulting in harm to patient.
Medical futility
A situation in which a patient has a medical or traumatic condition that is scientifically accepted to be futile should resuscitation be attempted - the patient should be considered dead on arrival.
Moral obligation
Obligation to act in a particular way in accordance with what is considered morally right.
Negligance
The failure to provide the level of care a person of similar training would provide, thereby causing injury or damage to another.
