David Carson

Nursing and the law

This book presents and explains those parts of the law which are relevant to the nursing profession. It aims to inform nurses of their rights, and those of their patients, and demonstrate that the law protects rather than threatens them. After introducing the legal system, the authors relate the relevant parts of the law to particular groups of patients. They have attempted to make the book accessible to those who have no prior knowledge of the legal system.

Standards of professional conduct

Nurses have considerable power in that patients depend upon them, directly and intimately, and their standards of professional conduct. If a nurse makes a mistake or drops below the proper level of care then harm may be caused to patients and to the public reputation of nursing.

Disabling progress: The law commission's proposals on mentally incapacitated adults' decision-making

Abstract The law in England and Wales concerning the making of legally significant decisions by adults who are mentally incapable is confused and, in terms of its implicit attitudes towards people with mental illnesses and learning disabilities, it is lagging behind changes in social policy. There have been major changes in this area of law, in recent years, in several other developed countries. The Law Commission in England and Wales is undertaking a review of this area of law and has published three consultation papers. This article examines the premises and principles underpinning the Law Commissions papers. It argues that the Commissions proposals do not match the needs or the emergent service philosophies and should be fundamentally reconsidered.

Good enough risk taking

People with some psychiatric disorders, as with many other disorders of health, are more likely to pose risks of harm to self or others than healthy people. Effective management and treatment necessarily involves a certain amount of risk taking in this regard. Psychiatrists and their allied professional colleagues, trapped somewhere between medical paternalism and inquiry culture and the civil rights complaints milieu are more inclined than not to share a conservative view of risk taking as the moral equivalent of gambling. The law at present compounds this with its binary, all or nothing, approach to risk assessment, whether in courts or review bodies. More imaginative, yet practical and testable approaches which reflect the dynamic process of risk development and reduction are considered. They are recommended for law and psychiatry, and in particular for the interface between them.

The sexuality of people with learning difficulties

Abstract Recent decisions of the British courts, on when women who have learning difficulties1 may be sterilised without their positive consent,2 have produced a lively debate.3 Sterilisation has also proved controversial in the United States of America where there has been greater legislative and judicial activity on the issues, and where there has also been extensive comment in the academic legal journals.4 However the focus of the debate in both countries has primarily been on either the correctness of individual decisions or a discussion of when sterilisation may appropriately be imposed. The wider issues of the sexuality of people with learning difficulties, and the quality of their life-styles and experiences, has implicitlv been treated as a separate issue.

New approaches to Mental Health Law: Will the UK follow the US lead, again?

Abstract The Mental Health Act 1983, with its greater emphasis upon legal tests and criteria, mirrored developments in the USA. Now, however, distinctively different co-operative and interdisciplinary developments are taking place in the USA. Will the UK again follow the US lead? This article highlights some of the developments and, as examples of the potential of the new approaches, considers a number of topics within the broad framework of mental health law. The article concludes that the question is whether practitioners in the UK are prepared to adopt the different ways of working that are involved with the new approaches

Mental processes: The mental health act 1983

(1983). Mental processes: The mental health act 1983. The Journal of Social Welfare Law: Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 195-211.

Recent Judicial Decisions

The facts A number of members of the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) had purchased shares in Elsevier PLC (known as ‘Reed’), as it was the parent company of Spearhead Exhibitions Limited (known as ‘Spearhead’). Spearhead organised annual exhibitions for the arms trade, at which there had been demonstrations and disorder. Reed’s buildings had also been damaged. The police were given the names of people who had recently bought shares in Reed and who would therefore be entitled to attend the company’s AGM. The police anticipated disorder at the AGM and made arrangements which included tasking a civilian, albeit clearly identified as with the police, to take photographs. The claimant, who was employed as the media coordinator of CAAT, attended the AGM of Reed and asked one unobjectionable question. However, two members of CAAT were ejected from the meeting because they were chanting. Upon leaving the meeting the photographer took pictures of the claimant. The sergeant in charge of an evidence-gathering group of officers decided it was important to discover the claimant’s name. He

The administration of drugs

This chapter considers the special problems that arise in connection with the administration of medicines. These are often dealt with by the law as specific applications of the principles discussed in Chapters 3–5. Where this is so, only a brief summary will be given here and the relevant chapter will be indicated. There are also special rules designed to reduce the risks of accidents concerning drugs and to facilitate victims of accidents getting compensation. Much of this law affects manufacturers, pharmacists and doctors rather than nurses. The areas discussed here are those that affect nursing practice.

Nursing responsibility in context

The previous chapter considered the rules of law that govern the setting of standards for the nursing profession through the law of negligence. Those rules govern the conduct of individual nurses. They might seem to suggest that the law sees nurses as working in a vacuum, unconnected with fellow nurses, or with other health professionals such as doctors, anaesthetists and midwives. In fact, the law of negligence allows the context of nursing to be taken into account. Identifying the standard of care means asking how a responsible body of colleagues would have expected a nurse to act. Nevertheless, there are other ways in which the context in which nurses find themselves working is taken into account. This chapter is concerned with the principles governing the nurse’s relationship with her colleagues.