EMT-Basic/Preparatory/Medical Legal
Lesson 1.3: Medical/Legal and Ethical Issues
Objectives
By the end of this lesson, the EMT-Basic should be able to:
- Define the EMT-Basic scope of practice.
- Discuss the importance of Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) orders and other advance directives and local or state provisions regarding EMS application of such directives.
- Define consent and discuss the methods of obtaining consent.
- Differentiate between expressed and implied consent.
- Explain the role of consent of minors in providing care.
- Discuss the implications for the EMT-Basic in patient refusal of transport.
- Discuss the issues of abandonment, negligence, and battery and their implications to the EMT-Basic.
- State the conditions necessary for the EMT-Basic to have a duty to act.
- Explain the importance, necessity, and legality of patient confidentiality.
- Discuss the considerations of the EMT-Basic in in issues of organ retrieval.
- Differentiate the actions that an EMT-Basic should take to assist in the preservation of a crime scene.
- State the conditions that require an EMT-Basic to notify local law enforcement officials.
- Explain the role of EMS and the EMT-Basic regarding patients with DNR orders.
- Explain the rationale for the needs, benefits, and usage of advance directives.
- Explain the rationale for the concept of varying degrees of DNR.