Quiz du droit

Clinical management situations sometimes involve a dilemma. Should the healthcare professional limit prescriptions to strictly on-label indications or place the priority on relieving pain (a fundamental patient's right) and thus write off-label prescriptions? The healthcare professional is not above the law when writing an off-label prescription. Special consideration concerning adverse or iatrogenic effects of the prescribed treatment is essential. Families are increasingly aware of the risks involved with healthcare and demand more and more information about the patient's health status. French law has evolved about the notion of medical secrecy (see law of March 4, 2002) allowing the family access to an increasing amount of information but also respecting the will of the patient so that the family cannot substitute for the patient nor the healthcare professional in the decision-making process. Nurses are sometimes faced with a specific problem when the doctor does not want to institute analgesic prophylaxis before a given intervention, which can be expected to be painful, and which would be less painful if a treatment were instituted. The nurse has to take a position, declining to perform the requested intervention, explaining the reasons for this refusal to deliver care. Despite its neutral position, the hospital cannot prohibit religion within its walls as long as such practice does not hinder correct care delivery.