EXAM 2 Health Law and Policy Study Guide
I strongly urge you to get together with a small group and study this material together. Write/type these
out using this guide, or highlight them in your physical textbooks and on copies of the PowerPoints, and
do it separately so that you can bring copies of it all with you when you get together to go over the unit
material. Then get together and study them again before the exam date. You need to OWN this
knowledge, so visit it and revisit it until it comes back to you in your sleep.
Definitions, purpose, each item’s elements/details, behaviors, nursing responsibilities and situations
creating negative consequences:
Law (i.e., what is the definition for healthcare?)
Health Policy,
Healthcare legislation – what entities enact it, what entities have power concerning it
Regulatory power,
Politics
Constituents/constituency
Vulnerable population
Negligence
Malpractice
Tort
Criminal law
Criminal negligence
Misdemeanor
Felony
Assault
Battery
Libel
Slander
Defamation of character
Disclosure
Incident Report—definition, when and how are they used
Patient safety
Compos mentis and capacity
Standard of care
Informed consent – components involved
Against medical advice
Making law—process, entities responsible for it (creating, enacting, implementing, enforcing, etc.)
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services – what are they, what are they designed to do, what is their
power/ability to regulate/control, who is covered, etc., what agency is responsible for them and controls
them, who supplies their money, who decides what population is served and who gets what.
Specifics about Medicare and all the various parts (Medicare part A, part B, part C, part D)
State Boards of Nursing – regulate what, responsible for what, actions they can and cannot take, duties
Scope of Practice – what defines, enacts, controls this
Nurse practice acts—where do they come from, what do they govern
Nursing licensure—purpose, criteria to get one, how can you lose it
Compact licensure
Grandfather clause
Continuing education credits
Know what the following are (their definitions, purpose, use & power, relation to nursing care, details)
1. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) – what is it, what does it do, what
is its intent, what is a nurse’s responsibility concerning it, what does it allow and what does it
prohibit
2. Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act
3. Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1986 (EMTALA)
4. State licensure laws—requirements for RN
5. branches of US government and what each branch’s responsibilities are.
6. Americans with Disabilities Act
7. Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005
8. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) (intent, what nurses should know)
9. nurses as health advocates—what, where, when, why, how
10. use of EMR, HIPAA rules for EMR
11. Nursing organizations—who they are, what their purpose is, what they control, services they
provide.
a. National League for Nursing
b. American Nurses Association
c. National Council of State Boards of Nursing
d. Oklahoma Nurses Association
12. What is a political action committee, what are they for, how do they work
13. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)
14. Elder abuse—definition and nursing responsibility; failure to report-- consequences
15. Child abuse—definition and nursing responsibility; failure to report-- consequences
16. Laws concerning the use of restraints
17. Living will
18. Durable Power of Attorney
19. Informed Consent
20. Uniform Health Care Decisions Act
21. Patient Self-Determination Act
22. Advanced directive