Guide to the Law for Nurses and Midwives, A (4e)

A Guide to the Law for Nurses and Midwives provides students and practitioners of nursing and midwifery with a general introduction to the nature and types of law in New Zealand, and to legislation of special relevance to health professionals. In an increasingly complex professional world, it is essential for healthcare workers to have knowledge and understanding of the law and its application to them, both as practitioners and citizens.

Introduction
Acknowledgements

1. Features of the New Zealand legal system.
2. Making and interpreting the law
3. Common law (court-made law)
4. Civil action and the law of torts
5. Health professionals and codes of practice
6. Criminal law
7. Legislation specific to practitioners – the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003
8. Legislation related to practice
9. Legislation in specialised areas of practice
10. Mental health
11. Midwifery practice and maternity services
12. Issues in practice
13. Complaints

Appendices 

1. The Treaty of Waitangi (English/Maori) 
2. Suggested format for making a submission
3. Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Compensation Amendment Act (No. 2) 2005 
4. Health and Disability Commissioner Report on Opinion – Case 98HDC13602 Staff Nurse
5. The Nurses Registration Act 1901
6. The Midwives Act 1904
7. Notice of Scopes of Practice and related qualifications prescribed by the Nursing Council of New Zealand
8. Notice of Scopes of Practice and related qualifications prescribed by the Midwifery Council
9. List of controlled drugs that designated prescriber nurses List of controlled drugs that designated prescriber nurses may prescribe in certain circumstances
10. Rights of patients and proposed patients: Mental Health Rights of patients and proposed patients: Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act 1992
11. Health Act 1956 Section 22C (as amended)
12. Legislation
13. Contact information

Bibliography
Index
Appendices

All the chapters have been updated. Specific changes are:

• a new chapter on the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act
• disciplinary procedures and the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal
• an update on prescribing legislation for nurses and midwives
• an update on legislation affecting midwifery and maternity services and the establishment of the Midwifery Council
• Medicines (Designated Prescriber: Nurse Practitioners) Regulations 2005
• Amendments to the Health Act
• An update on legislation related to children – the Children’s Commissioner Act 2003, the Care of Children Act 2004

Marie E. Burgess is a registered nurse and midwife with over 35 years’ experience in the health sector. A former national president of the New Zealand Nurses Association and chairperson of the Nursing Education and Research Foundation, she was for five years Registrar/Executive Director of the Nursing Council of New Zealand, and for six years a member of the Tairawhiti Regional Ethics Committee. She has a particular interest in the regulation of health professionals and a special interest in the law as it applies to nurses and midwives. For a number of years from the mid-1990s she specialised in legal-ethical seminars for healthcare professionals as part of her consultancy business, Marie E Burgess and Associates. Since 2001 she has been an elected member of the Tairawhiti District Health Board. She has chaired both the Board Quality Committee and the Hospital Advisory Committee. She is the author of Nursing in New Zealand Society, numerous papers and articles, and is at present working on a history of nursing at Cook Hospital, Gisborne.