Manage Legal and Ethical Compliance
Case Study Instructions
- Read the scenarios and answer the questions below for each of the scenarios.
| No. | The student’s assessment shows evidence of the following: |
| 1 | Section 1 – Scenario 1 |
| Liam is the facility manager at a residential aged care facility. The service provides independent living units, community nursing and home care packages, day centre visits, respite care, palliative care, and dementia specific care, to older people. Liam is responsible for managing legal and ethical compliance within the organisation, ensuring the facility’s AHPRA registration and accreditation are up to date, and maintaining collaborative and effective relationships with all multidisciplinary team members.
Lucy, a casual nurse, comes to work with symptoms of gastroenteritis. She knows that she should have stayed home but she knew the service was going to be short staffed. After carrying out her duties for three hours, Lucy talks to her manager, Janice, in the tea room. She explains her symptoms and that she is feeling weak and unsteady. Janice tells her to go home immediately as gastroenteritis is highly contagious and could pose a severe health risk to residents and other staff members. That evening, four residents develop gastroenteritis. Liam has left work for the day but receives a phone call from the night nursing unit manager alerting him to the spread of virus (herein called ‘the incident’). Liam responds immediately by ordering the service into lock down. One of the residents who contracted the virus is taken to hospital for treatment and is in a critical condition. Liam organises refresher training for all staff with regard to duty of care. Liam receives an incident report form from Janice regarding Lucy’s illness. He thinks that because of Lucy’s failure to comply with organisational work health and safety procedures relating to infection control, the organisation has breached its duty of care to provide residents with a safe and healthy care environment. |
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| Required Evidence | |
| Q1 | List and describe two information sources that Liam could regularly access for more information about his organisation’s legal and ethical compliance requirements regarding infection control. |
| Answer |  |
| Result | Satisfactory ☐ Not Satisfactory ☐ |
| Q2 | Explain how Liam could evaluate his responsibility as a service delivery manager. |
| Answer |
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| Result | Satisfactory ☐ Not Satisfactory ☐ |
| Q3 | List two places where Liam could access and interpret legal information relating to the incident. |
| Answer |
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| Result | Satisfactory ☐ Not Satisfactory ☐ |
| Q4 | Aside from an infection control risk, what other aspect of WHS was at risk if Sarah stayed at work? |
| Answer |
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| Result | Satisfactory ☐ Not Satisfactory ☐ |
| Q5 | Identify the specialist legal experts Liam could contact to obtain advice on the rights and responsibilities of the organisation, workers and the residents involved in the incident. |
| Answer |
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| Result | Satisfactory ☐ Not Satisfactory ☐ |
| Q6 | Describe how Lucy may have breached the organisation’s code of practice. |
| Answer |
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| Result | Satisfactory ☐ Not Satisfactory ☐ |
| Q7 | Explain how it is within Liam’s scope of practice to manage the incident. |
| Answer |
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| Result | Satisfactory ☐ Not Satisfactory ☐ |
| Q8 | Explain why it is important for Liam to evaluate the ethical responsibilities of the organisation to workers, service users, and the broader community. |
| Answer |
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| Result | Satisfactory ☐ Not Satisfactory ☐ |
| Q9 | Describe how Janice could model ethical behaviour in her own work to ensure all nursing staff understand their ethical and legal responsibilities to report potential workplace hazards. |
| Answer |
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| Result | Satisfactory ☐ Not Satisfactory ☐ |
| Q10 | Identify and describe four policies and procedures Liam should use to support legal and ethical compliance when managing the incident. |
| Answer |
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| Result | Satisfactory ☐ Not Satisfactory ☐ |
| Q11 | Explain why it is important, in the context of the incident, for Liam to integrate documentation and record keeping requirements into the organisation’s policies and procedures. |
| Answer |
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| Result | Satisfactory ☐ Not Satisfactory ☐ |
| Q12 | List two ways Liam could ensure the records regarding the incident are adequately protected. |
| Answer |
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| Result | Satisfactory ☐ Not Satisfactory ☐ |
| Q13 | Describe how Janice could clarify the roles and responsibilities of team members in the nursing unit to ensure they understand their obligations relating to work health and safety. |
| Answer |
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| Result | Satisfactory ☐ Not Satisfactory ☐ |
| Q14 | Describe how Liam could re-distribute the organisation’s work health and safety procedures to ensure an issue like this does not happen again. |
| Answer |
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| Result | Satisfactory ☐ Not Satisfactory ☐ |
| Q15 | Describe how Liam could evaluate work practices for non-compliance on an ongoing basis. |
| Answer |
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| Result | Satisfactory ☐ Not Satisfactory ☐ |
| Q16 | Who could Liam refer to for advice on managing Lucy’s non-compliant behaviour? |
| Answer |
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| Result | Satisfactory ☐ Not Satisfactory ☐ |
| Q17 | How could Liam share updated knowledge and information about compliance requirements with his peers and colleagues? |
| Answer |
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| Result | Satisfactory ☐ Not Satisfactory ☐ |
| Q18 | Explain how Liam could use the plan-do-check-act methodology to provide a process-oriented approach to reviewing and improving the organisation’s quality management. |
| Answer |
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| Result | Satisfactory ☐ Not Satisfactory ☐ |