LEGAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES RELATED TO PSYCHIATRIC EMERGENCIES

LEARNING RESOURCES

Required Readings

· Buppert, C. (2021).  Nurse practitioner's business practice and legal guide (7th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

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· Chapter 7, “Negligence and Malpractice”

· Chapter 8, “Risk Management”

· Chapter 16, “Resolving Ethical Dilemmas”

· National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (2019).  Br ø set violence checklistLinks to an external site. . http://riskassessment.no/

· Sadock, B. J., Sadock, V. A., & Ruiz, P. (2015).  Kaplan & Sadock’s synopsis of psychiatry (11th ed.). Wolters Kluwer. (For review as needed)

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· Chapter 23, “Emergency Psychiatric Medicine”

· Chapter 36.2, “Ethics in Psychiatry”

· Thapar, A., Pine, D. S., Leckman, J. F., Scott, S., Snowling, M. J., & Taylor, E. A. (Eds.). (2015).  Rutter’s child and adolescent psychiatry (6th ed.). Wiley Blackwell.  

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· Chapter 19, “Legal Issues in the Care and Treatment of Children With Mental Health Problems”

· Chapter 64, “Suicidal Behavior and Self-Harm”

· U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. (2019).   VA/DoD clinical practice guidelinesLinks to an external site. : Assessment and management of patients at risk for suicide (2019). https://www.healthquality.va.gov/guidelines/MH/srb/

· Zakhari, R. (2021).  The psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner certification review manual. Springer Publishing Company.

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· Chapter 15, “Violence and Abuse”

THE ASSIGNMENT

In 2–3 pages, address the following:

· Explain Texas state laws for involuntary psychiatric holds for child and adult psychiatric emergencies. Include who can hold a patient and for how long, who can release the emergency hold, and who can pick up the patient after a hold is released.

· Explain the differences among emergency hospitalization for evaluation/psychiatric hold, inpatient commitment, and outpatient commitment in the state of Texas.

· Explain the difference between capacity and competency in mental health contexts.

· Select one of the following topics and explain one legal issue and one ethical issue related to this topic that may apply within the context of treating psychiatric emergencies :

a) patient autonomy,

b) EMTALA,

c) confidentiality,

d) HIPAA privacy rule,

e) HIPAA security rule,

f) protected information,

g) legal gun ownership,

h) career obstacles (security clearances/background checks),

i) and payer source.

· Identify one evidence-based suicide risk assessment that you could use to screen patients.

· Identify one evidence-based violence risk assessment that you could use to screen patients.