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Gerontological nurses are constantly faced with new and different legal challenges that affect their professional lives. For example, the baby boomers will bring their own cohort's legal issues to be addressed (e.g., environmental safety, Medicare reform, clinical negligence of caregivers, product safety). Yet, many nurses seem very afraid of anything that suggests a legal issue could surface in their practice. Too often laws are equated with lawsuits, even though legal aspects of nursing practice, especially with older adults, are far broader and deeper than a lawsuit.
The nursing profession is based on law (Nurse Practice Acts), so everything we do, as nurses, is open to public scrutiny. Nursing's standards of practice give society a way to measure nursing care to determine that older citizens are not harmed. As reasonable and prudent nurses, we have the responsibility to practice within the legal bounds of our profession in coping with the legal issues affecting not only our practice, but the lives of our patients and clients. In conjunction with other health professionals, lawyers, jurists, lawmakers, and investigative journalists, the nurse's advocacy role in caring for older adults must openly focus on helping to ensure that laws are made and followed for the benefit of older adults.
One of the challenges facing the Journal of Gerontological Nursing has been deciding whether...