Nursing Negligence Case Study

In healthcare field the term negligent used to be associated with the physician and the physician negligence acts. There was a fundamental division that existed between the physician and nurse. Nurses had a more defined role in the past and waited for the physician to give specific orders and dare not criticize a physician on the way he was treating the patient. The role of nurse has changed over the years. Nurses today assume functions that were previously performed only by the physician. Nurses now have the responsibilities of conducting examinations, they often diagnose and treat the patient before the patient is even seen by the physician. The physician will often look over the nurse notes and sign off on the paperwork. Nursing is now an advanced and more specialized profession and the role of nurse is now more dominant in patient care and has expanded tremendously. The result of this expansion is that liability for basic nursing negligence has shifted to its “professional” counterpart (malpractice liability). In the healthcare profession nurses are heavily relied upon to assess and evaluate treatment options and the stakes for families involved are much higher than in the past. In nursing one small mistake can cause loss of life. There are many common mistakes like high drug dosage,

Due to this mistake the hospital, nurses and some of the staff had to be sued for negligence and the patient could have lost their life. It is important for nurses to ask if they believe something is a mistake. If they believe the medication was given but not recorded due to the dosing schedule the 2nd nurse could have asked the patient or called the pharmacy to double check. It is also important to record information on the right chart or under the right account. All pertinent information should be recorded and