Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 17, 2026

Using Visual and Narrative Methods to Achieve Fair Process in Clinical Care
Published on: February 16, 2011
Trappings of technology: casting palliative care nursing as legal relations
1School of Law and Justice, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia. a.larsen@ecu.edu.au
Abstract:
Community palliative care nurses in Perth have joined the throng of healthcare workers relying on personal digital assistants (PDAs) to store, access and send client information in 'real time'. This paper is guided by Heidegger's approach to technologies and Habermas' insights into the role of law in administering social welfare programs to reveal how new ethical and legal understandings regarding patient information add to nursing's professional responsibilities. This qualitative research interprets data from interviews with twenty community palliative care nurses about clients' legal rights to informational privacy and confidentiality. It explores nurses' views of their nursing responsibilities regarding clients' legal rights, liability issues, bureaucratic monitoring and enforcement procedures. It concludes that nurses and clients are construed as legal subjects entrenched in legal relations that have magnified since these nurses began using PDAs in 2005/2006.
Related Concept Videos
Nurses' Legal Responsibilities II
Communication between nurses and patients...
Current Trends in Nursing II
Ethical Issues
Ethical Concerns in Healthcare:
Standards of Care II
Nursing Implementation
The five steps to implementing effective nursing care include reassessing the patient, reviewing and revising the existing nursing care plan, organizing the resources and care delivery, anticipating and preventing complications, and implementing nursing interventions.
Nurses' Legal Responsibilities III
Cultivating a culture of collaboration and mutual respect among nurses transcends mere enhancement...