There must be a duty to the patient. For example, the patient is owed a safe environment and the nurse has a duty to comply. Whether the nurse fails to keep doctors properly informed about the patient's condition or performs a procedure incorrectly, patients may suffer an injury due to nursing negligence. Fortunately, an attorney specializing in nursing negligence can file medical malpractice lawsuits against nurses and their employers demonstrating duty, breach of duty, causation and the damage.
All health professionals, including nurses, have a duty to provide patients with reasonable care under the circumstances. Cases of medical malpractice in nursing occur when a nurse fails to meet this professional standard of care and, as a result, a patient is injured or killed. These cases can also give rise to negligent supervision claims if another nurse had a duty to supervise the allegedly negligent nurse. For example, the patient is owed a safe environment and the nurse has a duty to follow doctors' orders to the patient.
These duties arise from the nurse-patient relationship. You must show that the nurse had a legal obligation to provide you with care. For example, if you have a heart attack on a bus, nurses are under no obligation to come to your aid and try to save you. But once they begin to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation, they create the nurse-patient relationship and must provide care that matches what a competent nurse would provide.
The specific duty owed to the patient has been breached, meaning that the duty has not been fulfilled. As for the safe environment, a nurse may forget to place the bed railing and the patient may fall. The nurse's failure to maintain the patient's safe environment would constitute a breach of duty. You will find a breach of duty due to you when you lack the competence of a nurse.
However, tracing your injuries back to a nurse's breach of duty can be difficult. If you get an infection in a hospital, you may not know if they didn't wash their hands or if the janitor didn't disinfect your room. Ultimately, it may not matter who was at fault, since a hospital assumes responsibility when an employee meets all four requirements. The breach of duty must have caused injuries that result in harm. The injuries that the patient suffered when he fell out of bed are the damages that can be claimed.
If the patient was not injured, there is no harm. In other words, even if the nurse made a mistake, she can only sue if she was harmed. This is generally the most difficult element to prove in a medical malpractice lawsuit. There must be a direct cause and effect relationship between the breach of duty and the injury to fulfill the fourth and last element of the four elements.
The breach of duty must have caused the injury. In the example, if the nurse hadn't left the bed with the railing down, the patient wouldn't have fallen. The nurse's breach of duty caused the injury. Communication between doctors, nurses and patients is essential to avoid errors. Everyone who implements the treatment plan must know the patient's condition.
Communication systems and a collaborative and secure environment can reduce the risk of a nurse breaching their obligations. Duty, responsibility, function: these are all terms that describe what the nurse owes to the patient she cares for. When describing or defining the functions of a nurse, a facility may choose a somewhat vague or broad wording. For example, a policy manual may state that a nurse must “provide a safe environment” rather than “prevent” harm.
A nurse can provide a safe environment to the best of their ability, but that doesn't necessarily mean the patient won't be harmed. However, it is possible that a patient can still harm themselves even in the safe environment offered by the nurse and her organization. There are five common accusations of nursing negligence made by patients. People tend to believe that all cases of malpractice stem from serious errors, but in reality, many times, the errors are simple.
A doctor can review your medical records and determine if your nurse violated the New York State Nursing Practice Act, which sets standards for nursing. The entities involved in your medical malpractice lawsuit can start with the nursing staff, but work their way up to the hospital's administrators. Failure to do these things can cause a nurse to be negligent and reckless, which is something a family can file a claim for. The reasons may be beyond the doctor's control; however, most cases of malpractice arise from avoidable events.
However, in essence, the standard of care established in the center's policy and procedure is the absolute minimum expectation for nurses and other staff. In the context of malpractice litigation, winning means leaving as soon as possible without the liability against you being judged. Take a deep breath, understand that there is more than an 82% chance that you will prevail in a trial and remember that malpractice is just the cost of being a doctor and, in many cases, you haven't done anything wrong. While the problem is most often associated with doctors, medical negligence is also widespread in nursing.
In many cases, medical negligence committed by a nurse often goes unnoticed until an adverse event occurs, such as an allergic reaction or drug overdose.
