Definition of malpractice Malpractice is negligence, misconduct, or breach of duty by a professional that causes injury or harm to a patient. In most cases, it includes failure to meet a standard of care or failure to provide the care that a reasonably prudent nurse would provide in a similar situation. But once you've done all of that and your patient has stabilized, you may feel afraid of a lawsuit. The best way to minimize the risk of a lawsuit is to follow two common-sense steps.
First, notify your manager and request the appropriate incident report form. Second, contact your insurer if you have personal insurance. You'll get solid advice on how to respond to the incident. The same applies to the possibility of a malpractice lawsuit.
Your best protection is to know the circumstances in which you are most at risk and then make sure you avoid any mistakes when working on them. This won't make you immune to malpractice charges, but it will strengthen your protection against them and your defense should one occur. Ahn recommends that nurses don't ignore a lawsuit or try to handle it independently. Medical malpractice law is complex and difficult to understand on your own. Just as a nurse wouldn't assume that she can perform heart surgery, she shouldn't assume that she can handle her own medical malpractice case.
Whether in a nursing home, hospital, doctor's office, or outpatient clinic, nurses are supposed to keep track of their patients' blood pressure and other vital signs, observe any changes, and report this information to doctors. Doctors, medical technicians and other nurses should also be updated on any changes in patient care and health status. In addition to medication errors, malpractice lawsuits arise from a breach of the triple duty to observe, intervene and protect. Take a proactive approach To avoid negligence lawsuits, take the time to understand the legal principles of negligence and incorporate them into your nursing practice.
For nurses, things like drawing blood, administering vaccines, and monitoring vital signs are a matter of course. The best way to avoid a malpractice lawsuit is to effectively communicate with patients and doctors, document all medical data, follow standards of care, and verify all information about patients and medications before administering prescriptions. An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure: if Benjamin Franklin hadn't coined that An expression would surely have been made by a nurse. If the patient's condition requires more frequent evaluation and monitoring, you are responsible for providing that care, reporting anomalies to the treating doctor or advanced practice nurse, and documenting your findings.
If a nurse's negligence causes injury, pain, suffering, or wrongful death to a patient, you could face a costly negligence lawsuit from the patient or their loved ones. A nurse may administer a medication that a patient is allergic to, give the patient the wrong dosage, the wrong prescription, or not give the patient a medication completely. Non-compliance with standards of care The rules of care apply to numerous measures focused on the patient or the nurse; some may change from one year to the next or even from one month to another one. In such cases, the lack of protection is compounded, for example, by changing the configuration so that the machine harms the patient instead of helping him.
What if nurses and doctors do what they have to do and don't avoid the fact that they may have ruined someone's life? Protecting yourself against malpractice isn't a form of self-protection that you prefer more than me, or an insidious plot to sweep guilt under the rug or leave it in someone else's lap. Here you are on safe ground as long as you act within the limits of your education, experience, appropriate standards of care, and the law of nursing practice of your state.
