DQ 1 : Legal issues, ethical considerations and risk management (insurance) – In your opinion, what is the relationship among these topics as they relate to NP’s?
Three definitions are the setup; the relationship among them is the assignment. Malpractice is where the chain becomes concrete, and the ANA Code is named as the tool for the ethics half.
Editorial process
Last reviewed · August 18, 2026
Three topics that only make sense as a chain
Define the three so that the relationship becomes visible rather than asserted. Legal issues are the enforceable obligations a nurse practitioner works under: scope of practice defined by a state board, prescriptive authority, mandatory reporting, documentation requirements, and negligence law with its four elements of duty, breach, causation and damages. Ethical considerations are the professional obligations that bind whether or not anyone could sue: autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice, veracity and fidelity, codified for nursing in the ANA Code. Risk management, including insurance, is the organisational and personal machinery for anticipating and absorbing failure — incident reporting, peer review, credentialing, and malpractice cover. Law sets a floor, ethics sets a ceiling, and risk management is the system that notices the gap between them before a patient does. Each definition should be written so that the next one has something to connect to. The three definitions are the setup; the relationship among them is what carries the marks.
Malpractice is where the brief asks you to make the interrelation concrete, so use its structure. The four elements are legal, but breach is defined by the standard of care, and the standard of care is substantially what the profession says competent practice is — which is where ethics enters the legal test directly rather than sitting alongside it. Take informed consent: obtaining it is an ethical obligation grounded in autonomy, a legal requirement whose absence supports a battery or negligence claim, and a risk management priority because consent disputes are a recurring source of claims. Or take truth-telling after an error, where the ethical duty of veracity, the legal exposure of disclosure, and the risk management evidence on communication-and-resolution programmes all meet in a single decision. Choose one, work it through all three lenses, and support it with a journal summary as the brief requires.
Likely learning objectives
- Define the three domains so that their relationship is visible.
- State the four elements of a negligence claim.
- Show how the standard of care imports professional ethics into a legal test.
- Apply all three lenses to a single clinical decision.
Assignment instructions
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Herzing NU 626 Unit 7 DQ 1 Legal issues, ethical considerations and risk management (insurance) – In your opinion, what is the relationship among these topics as they relate to NP’s? Define/describe what each of these are. Describe how each of these are interrelated. Provide an example of how ethics is interrelated into the legal issues of malpractice. Provide a journal summary to support your ideas. Please use ANA Code of Ethical Standards to guide the ethics discussion. Responses need to address all components of the question, demonstrate critical thinking and analysis, and include peer reviewed journal evidence to support the student’s position. Please be sure to validate your opinions and ideas with citations and references in APA format. Please review the rubric to ensure that your response meets the criteria. Legal issues, ethical considerations and risk management (insurance) – In your opinion, what is the relationship among these topics as they relate to NP’s? Define/describe what each of these are. Describe how each of these are interrelated. Provide an example of how ethics is interrelated into the legal issues of malpractice. Provide a journal summary to support your ideas. Please use ANA Code of Ethical Standards to guide the ethics discussion. Responses need to address all components of the question, demonstrate critical thinking and analysis, and include peer reviewed journal evidence to support the student’s position. Please be sure to validate your opinions and ideas with citations and references in APA format. Please review the rubric to ensure that your response meets the criteria.
Course-wide instructions that accompany this question
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS Discussion Questions (DQ) Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words. Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source. Herzing NU 626 Unit 7 DQ 1 One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words. I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses. Weekly Participation Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately. In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies. Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work). Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week. APA Format and Writing Quality Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required). Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation. I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition. Use of Direct Quotes I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly. As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content. It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source. LopesWrite Policy For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me. Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes. Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own? Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score. Late Policy The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies. Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances. If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect. I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension. As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading. Communication Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class. Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.
Turn the brief into deliverables
- 01A definition of each of the three domains.
- 02An account of how they interrelate, not three parallel paragraphs.
- 03The four elements of malpractice.
- 04One worked example seen through all three lenses.
- 05A journal summary, and explicit use of the ANA Code.
Defining each, then the malpractice example that links them
Legal issues for an NP
Cover scope, prescriptive authority and negligence law.
What the assessor is likely looking for
The four elements of negligence, named.
Ethical considerations under the ANA Code
Set out the principles and where the Code makes them binding.
What the assessor is likely looking for
A specific provision of the Code, cited.
Risk management as a system
Describe incident reporting, peer review, credentialing and insurance.
What the assessor is likely looking for
Risk management as more than malpractice cover.
Where the three meet: the standard of care
Show ethics entering the legal test through the standard of care.
What the assessor is likely looking for
The mechanism by which a professional norm becomes legally operative.
One worked example
Run consent or error disclosure through all three lenses.
What the assessor is likely looking for
A single decision analysed three ways, not three examples.
Using the ANA Code the brief requires
Recommended databases
- American Nurses Association
- NCBI Bookshelf
- PubMed Central
- American Association of Nurse Practitioners
Search sequence
- 1.Open the ANA Code and find the provision your example actually engages.
- 2.Read a malpractice reference for the four elements and the standard of care.
- 3.Check your state's practice environment for the scope element.
- 4.Find one journal article on disclosure or consent to summarise.
Reference shortlist
These are authoritative starting points, not a ready-made bibliography. A qualified reviewer must confirm that each source fits the assignment and supports the claim beside which it is cited.
Medical Malpractice
StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2023
Medical malpractice, including the four elements and how the standard of care is established.
State Practice Environment
American Association of Nurse Practitioners · 2024
State practice environments — the legal scope boundary that varies by jurisdiction.
NP Role Core Competencies
National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties · 2024
NP role core competencies, for the professional standard the legal test refers to.
Applying the Bradford Hill criteria in the 21st century: how data integration has changed causal inference in molecular epidemiology
PubMed Central · 2015
Applying causal criteria — relevant to the causation element of a negligence claim.
Implicit Bias
StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2024
Implicit bias, for the risk-management case that failures are often systemic rather than individual.
Review before submission
Common mistakes
- Writing three definitions and stopping before the relationship.
- Treating risk management as insurance only.
- Discussing ethics without opening the ANA Code the brief names.
- Choosing an example that does not actually involve malpractice exposure.
Submission checklist
- Does your post explain the relationship rather than list three topics?
- Are the four elements of negligence stated?
- Have you shown ethics entering through the standard of care?
- Is the ANA Code used rather than mentioned?
- Is there a journal summary as the brief requires?
Use this guide to plan and review your own work. Follow your institution's rules and read Brinevia's academic-integrity policy.
Written by
Maren Caldwell
MSN, RN, CNE
Medical-surgical nursing, pharmacology and NCLEX preparation
Maren is a registered nurse with over 15 years of clinical and educational experience in medical-surgical nursing. She writes on NCLEX preparation, patient care fundamentals, pharmacology and evidence-based practice.
Reviewed by
Dr. Tessa Redmond
DNP, RN, CNE
Evidence-based practice and clinical education
Tessa is a doctorally-prepared nurse educator. She reviews Brinevia content for clinical accuracy and alignment with current evidence-based guidelines.