Duty to Treat, Duty to Warn and Duty to Act - What Every Medical Professional Must Know

Duty to Treat, Duty to Warn and Duty to Act - What Every Medical Professional Must KnowThe principles of the Duty to Treat, Duty to Warn and Duty to Act are all parts of the law of negligence. They are all important to understand for those who work with the law. However, the duties each have to a patient can vary somewhat depending on the circumstances of that patient.The Duty to Treat, Duty to Warn and Duty to Act are usually defined as follows. The Duty to Treat is defined as the duty to provide any standard of care that is expected of a medical professional and not required by law. This duty may be in the form of attending to the body when it is injured, offering treatment when it is needed or offering assistance to a patient that is in pain. Duty to Treat also has a second duty which is the duty to give timely warning of any potential danger of harm to the patient.The Duty to Warn is similar to the Duty to Treat. In both situations the duty is to warn any person who is suffering any harm due to the negligence of a healthcare professional. However, there are some differences between the two.A person is not required to warn of the danger of a certain condition until it has occurred. However, they are obligated to inform anyone that is harmed by the condition, whether or not it happens to be a medical professional. A Duty to Warn also has a third duty that is the duty to take the appropriate steps in order to stop the condition from happening again.The Duty to Act is similar to the Duty to Treat. However, unlike the duty to treat, a duty to act also exists if a patient has previously been told about a possible danger, but it was not dealt with as quickly as possible. A person does not have a duty to act if the healthcare professional failed to act in time. As mentioned above, the importance of each of these duties is based on the circumstances of the patient. A patient's treatment can become very important to the healthcare worker, such as a certain injury or diagnosis that is soon to come. If a patient's treatments are cut short, then it could potentially cause the patient to become more seriously ill.With these duties, the healthcare worker is required to treat a patient with the best treatment possible and to warn them of any potential danger if they have been informed about the danger. Failure to do so could cause the patient to become even more ill. Understanding what these duties are will help the healthcare worker when dealing with a situation where one or more of the duties may come into play.