Regulations, Standards, Ethics, and Legal Aspects
The legal landscape
OHNs must know the statutes that shape practice. OSHA sets workplace safety duties, including the General Duty Clause, hazard communication, bloodborne pathogens, respiratory protection, hearing conservation, and recordkeeping (injury/illness logs, reporting fatalities and severe injuries). Workers' compensation is a no-fault system providing medical and wage benefits for work-related injury; the nurse documents objectively and understands the claim process without becoming an adversary. ADA governs accommodation and prohibits disability discrimination; FMLA provides job-protected leave; HIPAA and state law govern privacy. Know the difference between recordable and first-aid-only injuries.
Ethics
Apply autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice, and confidentiality. The central ethical tension is dual loyalty: the nurse owes duties to both employer and worker. Resolve it by grounding decisions in the worker's health, the law, and professional standards, and by disclosing role limits honestly.
Traps
Questions test whether you know that workers' comp is no-fault (fault is irrelevant), that ADA requires individualized assessment rather than blanket exclusions, and that the nurse cannot release records without authorization or legal mandate. Another trap: treating a first-aid case as recordable, or vice versa.
Rule of thumb
When law and employer pressure conflict, ask: What does the regulation require, what does the worker's health need, and what must be documented? Document facts, not opinions or blame.