Legal and Ethical Aspects of Complementary Therapies and Complementary Care

Chapter 5: Legal and Ethical Aspects of Complementary Therapies and Complementary Care

Overview:

• Defines ‘statutory regulation’
• Clarifies Civil Liabilities with particular emphasis on torts
• Explains both ‘duty of care’ and ‘standard of care’
• Cites particular cases to add further explanation to legal terms
• Describes various complaints commissions
• Provides alternate dispute resolutions (ADR’s) and lists helpful state health bodies and the legislations under which they were established

Description:

This chapter provides comprehensive information about aspects of Australia’s legal system that may influence the provision of complementary therapies by nurses, information that has been difficult for nurses to access in the past. It also covers how complementary therapies are regulated or self-regulated, liability, the nature of negligence, mechanisms for complaint by the public and issues around consent.

Topics:

• Introduction
• The Regulation Of Complementary Therapies
  • Statutory Regulation
  • Common Law Regulation
    • Contractual Liability
    • Liability In Tort
    • Duty Of Care
    • Standard Of Care
  • Public Complaints Mechanisms
  • Self-Regulating Associations
• Conclusion
• References

Speaker / Author:

Judith Lancaster

Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Laws (Hons), Master of Bioethics, Diploma of General Nursing, Graduate Certificate in Legal Practice, Graduate Certificate in Higher Education, admitted as a solicitor to the Supreme Court of New South Wales. Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Technology, Sydney.

Judith is a nurse and a lawyer who graduated as a registered general nurse from St Vincents Hospital in Sydney. Her experience in the nursing profession spans 15 years in Australia and overseas. She undertook a combined Arts/Law degree as a mature age student, graduating with first class honours in 1991, and was admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 1992. Judith is currently employed as a lecturer in the Faculty of Law, University of Technology in Sydney, where she teaches health care law and business law. She recently completed a master’s degree in bioethics. Her dissertation examined ways to increase the number of organ donations in organ transplant programs. Judith plans to commence doctoral work in 2000.

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