The Legal Framework for Working with Young People for Nurses

This session is an introduction to professional, legal and ethical issues concerning young people and their health.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this session you will be able to:

• Identify the major professional, legal and ethical issues concerning adolescents
• State the legal ages at which young people can participate in various activities
• Explain why legal ages at which young people can participate in various activities exist

In regard to adolescence there are a number of professional, legal and ethical issues. They are:

• Professional codes - concern standards of conduct that professionals must adopt in their care of adolescents
• Relevant legal considerations - relate to adolescent capacity to consent to medical treatment, assessment of that capacity, the legal duty of confidentiality and legal protection from maltreatment
• Ethical considerations - to grant young people as much self determination of their own affairs as they are capable of versus the need to protect them
• Relevant legal ages - at which young people deemed to have capacity to undertake activities

This session represents a brief introduction to the above issues though many of them are dealt in greater depth in the follow-on sessions in this module.