The Legal Aspect of Clinical Records

AS nurses are assuming an increasing number of the privileges of professional workers, it follows that they will inherit many of the obligations of the independent professional practitioner. The student nurse is safeguarded in many ways while she is under the protection of the hospital and thus is exempt from responsibility in many matters of potential legal significance. It may be both pleasant and expedient to save her from disturbing situations in which there are elements of legal implication. Perhaps these same situations arise from professional misdemeanors on her part, in which case the hospital assumes the responsibility. One may seriously question how far the hospital should go in these matters. While the degree of legal responsibility is usually defined, there would seem to be a moral responsibility to prepare the nurse to accept her share of accountability in the future. If nursing is to gain a firm footing on the professional level its members must be prepared to accept the obligations as well as the privileges of professional workers. Nurses must learn under a system of proctorship what is expected of them. They will be students, with the security that our present system affords, for but a brief moment. They will be full-fledged members of the nursing profession with responsibilities and liabilities for a much longer time. Along with her coworkers in other fields the nurse realizes the need for special instruction. The Honorable William Renwick Reddell, LL.D., D.C.L., Justice of Appeal for the Province of Ontario, said at a professional meeting last year