Law, Ethics and Professionalism Overview

Law, Ethics and Professionalism

• Law is a set of rules and regulations by a community's authority to govern actions between individuals and the government.
• General law covers constitutional, administrative, and criminal law.
• Constitutional law stems from the country's constitution.
• Administrative law encompasses trade, economy, public service, and environmental issues.
• Criminal law aims to maintain justice, public order, and safety. Felonies are serious crimes, while misdemeanors are less serious.
• Private law organizes rights and duties between individuals and organizations, including civil actions (like verbal abuse or divorce). Specific examples include libel (publicly harming reputation), slander (private defamation), lawsuits, tort (physical harm), and contracts.
• Sources of law include constitutions, legislative enactments, judicial decisions, treaties, and religious laws like Islamic Sharia.
• Islamic Sharia law's sources include the Quran, Sunnah (prophetic teachings), Ijma (scholarly consensus), and Qiyas (reasoning by analogy).
• Legal systems are either common law or civil law. The UAE has a civil law system, where laws are created by legislatures rather than judicial precedents.

Types of Governments

• Federal Government: is controlled by a supreme council that includes the rulers. It controls legislative and executive powers, including UAE president and vice president, and a council of ministers.
• Local Government: handled by local judicial departments at the emirate level (like Abu Dhabi, Dubai, etc.).

Judicial System

• The UAE's judicial system consists of federal courts and local courts at various levels (first instance, appeal, and cassation).
• The federal Supreme Court is at the top of the federal judiciary.
• Local judicial departments exist in each emirate.

Torts

• A tort is a civil wrong committed against a person or property, either intentional or unintentional.
• Intentional torts include assault (threat of harm), batter (physical contact), false imprisonment, defamation (damaging reputation), and invasion of privacy.
• Negligence is an unintentional tort resulting from a failure to provide expected care or a breach of duty (like malpractice, failing to act, or omission), often resulting in injury.

Civil Lawsuits and Criminal Lawsuits

• Civil lawsuits concern legal responsibility or fault for causing harm, which creates an obligation for compensation (or settlement) from the responsible party.
• Criminal lawsuits involve violations of criminal law and are brought and pursued by a state or government entity.

Medical Liability

• Criminal negligence is a situation where a paramedic carries out his duties negligently.
• Claims associated with criminal negligence must be filed within a certain time frame.
• There can be defences against negligence claims (like contributory negligence and voluntary assumption of risk).

Patient's Rights

• Moral and legal rights of patients are important in providing safe and effective healthcare.
• Patient rights cover situations like emergency care, treatment choices, and their right to understand their options.
• Patients have the right to access their records and be aware of service charges and fees.

Paramedic Rights

• Paramedics have rights to fair treatment, to refuse certain patient care, freedom from disruptive behavior, and work in safe environments.
• Paramedics are entitled to specific leaves of absence, including annual leave, sick leave, maternity leave, and paternity leave.
• Paramedics have the right to fair treatment, to refuse to take part in certain patient care (like abortions or ending a life), to question patient care, to work in a harmless environment that is free from sexual harassment, to be treated with dignity and respect, and to have their privacy and confidentiality protected.

Consent

• Consent is an agreement to receive medical treatment. Consent must be voluntary and the subject must fully understand the nature and extent of the treatment (e.g. must be of legal age and mental capacity).

Administrative Regulations

• Define paramedic roles, education requirements, and behaviors.
• Educational requirements are defined by different courses including formal university degrees and online courses. There are also formal and informal levels, like EMT and those for EMT-technical requirements.

Health Care Authorities

• Local health authorities include those in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah.
• Federal health authorities are based on the national level (like MOHAP).
• Each emirate has their own national and local ambulance services and police.

Professional Qualifications

• Educational requirements for paramedics depend on the course.

Ethical Issues

• The study of right and wrong actions, or what is considered ethical and unethical by a community.
• Micro ethics deals with individual views, while macro ethics refers to the global view of what is right or wrong.
• Moral codes detail professional guidelines.
• Ethical dilemmas occur in situations needing choices between right and wrong actions.
• Consequentialist ethics assesses actions based on their results.
• Deontological ethics stresses rules and duties.
• Virtue ethics centers around a life of virtue and moral character. Moral dilemmas are situations where values, rights, and duties conflict.

Medical Documentation

• Recording and documentation, including patient care records (PCR) are legally important to defend against claims.
• PCR (Patient Care Record) helps medical professionals gather information and provides a record of treatment.
• PCR must be factual, include measurable objective data, subjective data (e.g. pain degree), and quotation marks to show patient statements in case of legal problems.

This quiz covers fundamental concepts of law, ethics, and professionalism. It explores various branches of law including constitutional, administrative, and criminal law, as well as private law and its applications. Additionally, it examines the sources of law, including Islamic Sharia, and the distinctions between felonies and misdemeanors.