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The Economic Context of Nursing Practice in the U.S.
No full textThis award-winning resource is the only text to focus on the financial and business skills needed by students in DNP programs. The third edition, updated to reflect key changes in our healthcare system and in nursing competencies, includes three new chapters addressing Big Data, Population Health, and Financial Management in Times of Uncertainty. It examines the impact of COVID on our healthcare system as it relates to nursing competencies, provides expansive coverage of clinical environments beyond acute care, and presents five comprehensive new case studies emphasizing the financial aspects of DNP roles and the DNP Project.
Clear and well-organized, the third edition emphasizes critical skills that nurse leaders need to participate in strategic health care planning. It addresses recent changes to reimbursement and health care regulations. The third edition offers updated information on ambulatory care, cost and ratio analysis, new examples of financial statements, and a new business plan. Enhanced teaching strategies include real-life case studies, challenging critical thinking questions, learning games, key terms, and an extensive glossary. New PowerPoint slides add to the text\u27s value as a vital teaching tool.https://scholarship.law.ua.edu/fac_bookchapter/1065/thumbnail.jp
Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment
No full textThis accessible and authoritative introduction tells the American story of religious liberty from its colonial beginnings to the latest Supreme Court cases. The authors analyze closely the formation of the First Amendment religion clauses and describe the unique and enduring principles of the American experiment in religious freedom - liberty of conscience, free exercise of religion, religious equality, religious pluralism, separation of church and state, and no establishment of religion. Successive chapters map all of the 240+ Supreme Court cases on religious freedom - covering the free exercise of religion; the roles of government and religion in education; the place of religion in public life; and the interaction of religious organizations and the state. The concluding reflections argue that protecting religious freedom is critical for democratic order and constitutional rule of law, even if it needs judicious balancing with other fundamental rights and state interests.Clear, comprehensive, multidisciplinary, and balanced, this classic volume is an ideal classroom text. This new 5th edition addresses fully the new hot-button issues and cases on religious freedom versus sexual liberty; religious worship in the time of COVID; freedom of conscience and exemption claims; state aid to religion; religious monuments and ceremonies in public life; and the rights and limits of religious groups.https://scholarship.law.ua.edu/fac_books/1068/thumbnail.jp
Moral Reflections on Twenty-First Century Tax Policy Trends
Full text linkFocusing on individual taxpayers, this article offers moral reflections on state and local, and federal tax policy trends during the first two decades of the twenty-first century. Although tax policy decisions are made by politicians (who often rely on economists), determining the best tax policy is ultimately an ethical issue and serves as a barometer revealing the true moral compass of any community. I started thinking about ethical tax policy while studying theology at the Beeson Divinity School, a conservative evangelical seminary that is part of Samford University. At Beeson, I noticed for the first time the gap between walk and talk in my home state. Of Alabama-although more than 90% of Alabamians claimed to be Christians, its regressive state and local taxes and paltry K-12 funding harshly impacted the most vulnerable and powerless Alabamians. In 2002, I published my thesis that condemned this as biblically immoral and urged all Christians in Alabama, especially political and religious leaders, to support reforms.
My article condemning Alabama\u27s tax policy under the moral principles of Judeo-Christian ethics generated nationwide press coverage. Internationally, the London Times also weighed in. This press coverage and numerous questions posed at hundreds of speaking engagements all over Alabama and in twenty-eight states inspired me to embark on a body of scholarship spanning a decade that morally evaluated federal tax policy and the state and local tax policy of all fifty states.
All tax policy issues ultimately boil down to answering two questions. The first defines the amount of revenues to be raised and for what purpose such revenues are to be spent. The second determines how the burden of paying the taxes needed to raise these revenues will be allocated among taxpayers enjoying different levels of income and wealth. Part I of this article briefly identifies fundamental concepts surrounding the discussion of these two questions and explains why economic theories cannot provide definitive answers.
Part II illustrates that the moral principles of Judeo-Christian ethics require tax policy that raises an adequate level of revenues so that all persons have a reasonable opportunity to reach their potential with the tax burden allocated under a moderately progressive model. Part II then explains why several community-oriented secular theories come to similar tax policy conclusions as the Judeo-Christian approach, albeit for different reasons.8 Finally, this part contrasts these moral frameworks to objectivist ethics, a form of atheism that values individual self-interest over all else, which only condones tax policy that raises as little revenue as possible under a burden allocation model void of any progressive elements.
After summarizing my 2002 article condemning Alabama\u27s state and local tax policy as biblically immoral, Part III overviews empirical research conducted a few years later that provided a helicopter view of the state and local tax policy in all fifty states. This part then illustrates that most of the states had tax policies that were just as immoral, only slightly better, or even more immoral than Alabama\u27s tax policy, while the others still failed to raise adequate revenues supporting reasonable opportunity under a moderately progressive model.\u27 Finally, Part III explores the most recent evidence that indicates some states have slightly improved their tax policies while others are even more unfair. Because our nation\u27s state and local policy essentially has not changed, it is still as immoral as it was earlier in the twenty-first century.
Part IV overviews and morally evaluates federal tax policy trends during the first two decades of the twenty-first century. President George W. Bush\u27s first term tax cuts eroded progressivity while benefiting the wealthiest Americans, created substantial federal deficits jeopardizing programs uplifting the most vulnerable Americans, and moved towards eliminating the estate tax. The justifications behind the Bush tax cuts were not only void of Judeo-Christian or community-oriented secular principles but also reflected objectivist ethics values. Despite severe economic challenges and partisan gridlock, President Barack Obama reversed some of these income tax trends, and although his moral conversation more closely reflected Judeo-Christian and community-oriented secular values, his compromises further eroded the estate tax. This part then illustrates that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which in addition to favoring the wealthiest Americans while threatening the nation\u27s fiscal stability, is also driven by objec- tivist ethics. This article concludes that, overall, twenty-first century tax policy trends are headed in the wrong direction that are contrary to the values most Americans claim to adhere to. Although President Joseph R. Biden\u27s ideas could start steering federal tax policy in the right direction, objectivist ethics influence poisoning tax policy, which remains a powerful force that, if allowed to continue, will eventually ruin the nation
Malpractice
No full textThis book provides an overview of the US laws that affect clinical practice for healthcare professionals with no legal background.
Divided into thirteen sections, each chapter starts with a summary of the chapter’s content and relevant legal concepts in bullet points before discussing the topics in detail. An application section is provided in many chapters to clarify essential issues by reflecting on clinically relevant case law or clinical vignette(s).
Filling a crucial gap in the literature, this comprehensive guide gives healthcare professionals an understanding or a starting point to legal aspects of healthcare.https://scholarship.law.ua.edu/fac_bookchapter/1030/thumbnail.jp
Sex, Crime, and Serostatus
Full text linkThe HIV crisis in the United States is far from over. The confluence of widespread opioid usage, high rates of HIV infection, and rapidly shrinking rural medical infrastructure has created a public health powder keg across the American South. Yet few states have responded to this grim reality by expanding social and medical services. Instead, criminalizing the behavior of people with HIV remains an overused and counterproductive tool for addressing this crisis - especially in the South, where HIV-specific criminal laws are enforced with the most frequency.
People living with HIV are subject to arrest, prosecution, and lengthy prison sentences if they fail to disclose their HIV-positive serostatus before engaging in sexual or needle-sharing activities. Passed in response to panic following the discovery of HIV, these laws have not kept pace with medical advancements regarding the transmission and treatment of the infection. As a result, they criminalize behaviors that pose little risk of transmission and punish people who cannot or do not infect others. HIV criminalization laws also contribute to the spread of HIV by disincentivizing HIV testing, which would otherwise connect people to prevention and treatment plans.
While other scholars have critiqued these laws, this Article is the first to argue that state legislatures should pivot away from criminalization toward a comprehensive response to HIV informed by harm reduction-a branch of public health emphasizing risk mitigation. This approach must prioritize both the expansion of preventative services and the repeal of most HIV exposure laws. Simultaneously broadening services and narrowing criminal liability would remove barriers to HIV testing and promote early medical interventions, which reduce the spread of HIV and improve health outcomes. This paradigmatic shift also introduces a framework that can be implemented in other public health contexts that currently over-rely on criminalization throughout the region and the country
The Least of These: The Case for Nationwide Injunctions in Immigration Cases as a Critical Democratic Institution
Full text linkThe Law of Emerging Adults
Full text linkLaw tends to divide people into two groups based on age: children and adults. The age of majority provides a bright line between two quite different legal regimes. Minority is characterized by dependency, parental control, incapacity, and diminished responsibility. Adulthood is characterized by autonomy, capacity, and financial and legal responsibility. Over the course of the twentieth century, evolving understandings of adolescence in law and culture produced a staged process of increasing liberty and responsibility up to the age of majority. After eighteen, however, the presumption of adulthood remains strong. Today, a combination of psychological and social factors has extended the process of becoming an adult well into legal adulthood. Psychologists call this life phase emerging adulthood and have identified it as a crucial period of transition and exploration. This Article argues that emerging adults should be treated as a distinct legal category. This life stage differs both from childhood and adulthood with regard to three key relationships: the parent-child; the individual and the market; and the individual and the state. Laws are beginning to treat emerging adults differently. This Article examines the developing law of emerging adults, by focusing on parental support obligations, federal interventions, and punishment. Looking to the future, this Article then provides a framework for further legal reform that is guided by three principles, which reflect emerging adulthood\u27s unique economic vulnerability, developing autonomy, and capacity to learn from mistakes. I argue that a broad array of legal tools could provide individuals with greater autonomy than exists during minority, but greater protection than adulthood typically provides. Such tools include staging responsibilities and entitlements over time, requiring licensing or consultation, or extending state and parental obligations toward emerging adults