title: Legal implications of the Patient Self-Determination Act.
abstract: Passage of the Patient Self-Determination Act provides professional nurses with the opportunity to expand their existing roles of educator and advocate. Institutional policies and procedures implementing the Act should be flexible enough to permit registered nurses to answer questions about the right to refuse medical treatment and how to implement that right. Patients and their families have been asking nurses these questions since before the Quinlan case was decided in 1976.
authors.forename: L Z
authors.initials: LZ
authors.lastname: Boyle
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D016743:Mental Competency / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D008923:Missouri; D010358:Patient Participation / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D016312:Treatment Refusal; D014481:United States