Liability For Negligence In Nursing

Liability for Negligence

The nurse in this situation could be liable for negligence due to the duty and relationship established when the nurse prescribed Tylenol to the child. Negligence can be proven when there should have been a duty to a patient, but for some reason the duty has inflicted an injury to a patient (Ruth, 2003, pg. 72). Legal causation regards the harm done because there was a breach in the standard of care. In considering whether there was negligent behavior involved, one must also take into consideration whether there was an established duty and what was the standard of care for the patient. As was previously discussed in this paper, the duty was established once the nurse gave medical advice to the patient, otherwise, there

The article Ethics, Law, and Policy by Anselmi discusses liability which is the obligation that someone has to another person “enforceable by civil remedy or criminal punishment” (pg. 45). Certain protocols are implemented to prevent liability issues, but nurses are still responsible for their own actions. Not only are there patients to deal with but also ethical issues regarding the health of the patient. There are also other types of relationships that summon indirect liability. Not only does the nurse have a relationship with the patient but also between the employer, making the business entity under which the nurse for “also culpable for negligent acts and omissions of the nurse employee” (Anselmi, 2012, pg. 46). This may be the case since the nurse works for a specific department within a hospital. Although at the time that the medical advice was given the nurse's employer was not involved, there is an employee/employer relationship. The manager of the nurse is responsible for her tasks while on duty but since the nurse took the initiative to take her friend’s child as her patient, the manager may also be subject to the

Autonomy deals with having the option to make your own decisions with the condition that the decisions do not harm others. Beneficence refers to doing good for others, not out of obligation, but because you have a sense of desire. Going back to the nurse’s case, she may have genuinely given the advice to the friend, but she failed to take into consideration whether she was competent in treating the