Legal Seminar for Nursing Students

An article appears in the latest edition of the Journal of Nursing Law, which is the official publication of The American Association of Nurse Attorneys (TAANA). See www.taana.org. Its Journal of Nursing Law, Vol. 11, No. 4, 197-208.

The article is titled Current Legal Changes: Innovative Legal Seminar for Nursing Students. The article notes the exposure of nursing students to legal content is limited and suggests that schools and colleges of nurses offer a legal seminar for nursing students taught by a nurse attorney to fill in the knowledge gaps. What do you think? Good idea or Bad idea?

I like the article however I don't agree that the learning modules proposed are the most applicable to nurses. The article was co-authored by a hospital nurse attorney and this is obvious from the learning modules proposed:

1. Care of the Emanicipated Minor

2. Hospital Lawsuits

3. Nurse Malpractice and the Attorney

4. Liability of Nurse Managers

5. Physician Orders

6. Nursing Charting and Technology

7. End of Life Authorizations

Nursing care takes place in settings other than hospitals and as a nursing licensure defense attorney I would suggest and propose the following modules for nursing students:

1. Legal Regulation of Nursing Practice: Board of Nursing and Nursing Licensure Compact

2. Professional Regulation and Nursing Malpractice

3. Criminal Law 101 for Nurses

4. Employment Law 101 for Nurses

5. Nursing Documentation and the Medical Record

6. Pros and Cons of Professional Liability Insurance

7. Self-Regulation of Nursing Practice: Managing the Risks

What topics would you suggest for a nursing student legal seminar? Also this article illustrates in my opinion how nurse attorneys can have different and opposite perspectives on legal issues in nursing.

The client of a hospital nurse attorney is the HOSPITAL, not the individual nurse and the modules proposed above address HOSPITAL liability concerns more so while the modules I propose are centered around the individual nurse, not the place of employment.