These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Legal semantics. Nurses and non-surgical abortions.
    Author: Rae K.
    Journal: Nurs Times; 1981 Feb 26; 77(9):351. PubMed ID: 6907952.
    Abstract:
    A 1980 law was confirmed by the House of Lords majority which allows nurses to participate in the nonsurgical prostaglandin termination of pregnancy. Nurses are acting under written instructions of a doctor when carrying out the procedure, although they also terminate the pregnancy. A nurse is now in danger of liability litigation if she fails at any stage of the termination to perform successfully. The majority decision made the two words "termination" and "treatment" of pregnancy synonymous. Nurses are to act in a ministerial capacity and on doctors' orders. Doctors are to share in any liability if negligence should occur. The question remains: will they? The procedure includes the following: attachment of the catheter to the prostaglandin pump; switching on of pump; insertion of a cannula into the vein; attachment and commencement of the oxytocin intravenous infusion; monitoring of the patient's observations; adjustment of the flow rates of both infusions; and, discontinuation of the process once the fetus is discharged or a fixed period has expired after which the operation is considered to have failed (usually 30 hours).
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]