What is nursing malpractice?
A medical malpractice committed by a nurse is the same as any other case of malpractice, where there is an omission of care or injury to the patient. To qualify as a medical malpractice case, there should be evidence of failure to adhere to a standard clinical practice that resulted in harm to you or your loved one. This harm could have been averted by another competent nurse under similar circumstances.
Nurses perform a vital role in patient care, monitoring, and recovery. Even a trivial mistake like miscommunication with a physician or missing out on information in medical reports can become a reason for your suffering.
Some examples of nursing negligence include:
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Inadequate patient assessment
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Inappropriate nursing intervention or care
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Delivering an incorrect or wrong dose of medication
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Inaccurate order interpretation
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Inadequate infection control
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Improper use of equipment
Nursing Malpractice Statistics
According to the National Practitioner Data Bank, most of the time, nurses are independently responsible for the malpractice claims (77%). About 7,000 (6%) of all malpractice payments after a judgment or settlement were made in the past 10 years (2010-2020). An average of 200M dollars was paid for these malpractice payments each year. This included registered, practical, paraprofessional, and advanced nurse practitioners. For the patient outcomes from these claims, about one-third of them resulted in deaths, one-fourth as significant/major permanent injury, and one-eighth in minor/insignificant temporary injury.
Reported cases of negligence occurred in:
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Inpatient and outpatient care in hospitals (60%).
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Nursing home and rehabilitation facilities (18%)
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Advanced practice nurses (nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, and nurse anesthetists) (9%).
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Psychiatric facilities (8%)
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Nurses working under independent practice settings of physicians (2%)
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Home health agencies (2%)
Among the allegations in nursing negligence, the three main categories that may lead to a malpractice lawsuit are problems relating to:
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Failure to diagnose or delayed diagnosis (41%)
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Delay in treatment (31%)
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Medication errors or wrong orders (13%).
Others arise from:
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Surgery, obstetrics related, improper monitoring, and environmental safety (15%).