The Nursing Case: Claims Of Malpractice In Nursing

777 Words4 Pages
Personal liability is an important topic to discuss. Claims of malpractice could ruin the career of the nurse and destroy all the hard work that was completed to earn the RN title. While this is such an important topic it is one that most nurses don’t commonly think about. Many nurses believe their facility will protect them in case of a lawsuit. Westrick (2014) points out, “There is a difference and separation between the nurse’s liability and his or her employer’s liability” (p. 44-45). It is important to recognize if the facility has coverage and what they will cover and what they will not. Attempts to find the policy of the hospital this nurse is employed at were difficult. Once discovered, the policy was vague and spoke of a trust…show more content…
Two of the nurses interviewed did not have an additional liability policy in place. The first nurse LC, was unsure if the facility even had one and said she guessed they did since her old facility did. This fear of the unknown was evident as soon as the question was asked and she vocalized the fact that she needed to find out about it. She simply said she hadn’t thought about it until the question was posed to her. The second nurse GF, also said she assumed the hospital would cover her in the event of any litigation. She was not aware of the policy or what was written, she simply had heard from other nurses that she shouldn’t worry. Neither of the responses given by either of these nurses was based on the actual policy. Kim and Lee (2015) found that health information technology and more electronic records did reduc the number of medical malpractice claims, but cautioned that without high-quality electronic record keeping medical malpractice claims could increase (p. 123). Electronic charting requires a lot of time and attention and perhaps this charting overload may lead the nurse to assume they will be covered by their…show more content…
Both were required to buy them while pursuing higher education. Nurse SK, purchased her policy while in school earning her bachelors of nursing. She continued to pay for it after she had graduated. She wasn’t really sure how it worked or what the coverage was, but she said she would rather be safe than sorry in the case of a malpractice suit. Nurse RT, is currently working on obtaining her masters degree and purchased her policy as a stipulation of her program. She stated that once she finishes she will likely cancel the policy since she doesn’t feel she needs it. This could be a mistake. Dolan (2017) recommends advance practice nurses meet with a lawyer to discuss their coverage and ensure they are not vulnerable in the face of a malpractice lawsuit (p. 48). Again, both of these nurses didn’t really have a clear knowledge of their facility policy or their individual policy and had purchased it only when forced to do
Show More
Related

  • Certified Nursing Assistant

    2098 Words  | 9 Pages

    Why do certified nursing assistants need to know how to use and read a medical chart? Reading and Writing is fundamental in every career from teaching, legal occupations, engineering, and most importantly in the medical field. According to the nursing assistant guide, written and oral communication are necessary skills in the nursing occupation. The use of writing and reading skills is applied to a number of job responsibilities of certified nursing assistants including documenting medical records

    Read More

  • Nurse Practitioner Shortage

    2467 Words  | 10 Pages

    Depending on the specialty, the job requirements and environments will differ. Along with those differences, salaries will vary accordingly to where they work and even their chosen specialties. As relates to my project, which is completing a Certified Nursing Assistant course, my research paper

    Read More

  • Contributory Negligence Case Study

    2026 Words  | 9 Pages

    DEFENSE OF CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE Sometimes the unexpected results may not be only due to negligence of the doctor but also due to negligence of patients. In such circumstances the severity of doctor's negligence is minimized. He can thus claim the defense of contributory negligence. CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE MEANING Contributory negligence is negligence in not avoiding the consequence arising from the defendant's negligence, when plaintiff has means and opportunity to do so. Lord Halsbury as stated

    Read More

  • The Impact Of Illegible Handwriting In Healthcare

    1534 Words  | 7 Pages

    In the case previously mentioned, the physician was deemed to be 25% responsible for the error, the pharmacist 75% responsible (Hadridge, 2006). Similar to one of the responses in this study revealed that nurses are often blamed for medical errors and inappropriate interventions. Most often, and in reality, other members of the healthcare team are the ones being held responsible for these errors because they are the ones taking action. However, in some cases, this may not be acceptable

    Read More

  • Terri Schiavo Case Paper

    1884 Words  | 8 Pages

    they were refused as well. They also said Michael Schiavo had violated the ADA, which is Americans with Disability Act. On 25 March, their request was denied again by Judge Whittemore. He ruled that the the 8th Amendment refers to only in criminal cases and that Terri had not been convicted of any crim. He also made it clear to them that the actions of a husband to his wife cannot be referred as discrimination under the ADA (The Lessons,

    Read More

More about The Nursing Case: Claims Of Malpractice In Nursing

Open Document