Personal malpractice insurance....yes or no?

Sigh.

Is $100 (more or less) a good deal if it's not needed?

If nurses "feel better" having malpractice insurance, buy it. But realize it's simply a form of therapy.

Remind yourself: nurses just don't get sued very often. Oh, it happens on a very, very rare basis, but the reason it's "so reasonable" (as we are reminded all the time) is simply because it doesn't happen. Statistically speaking, it's not going to happen to you. Ever. Even if you are unfortunate enough to have bought malpractice insurance.

Attorneys get paid (in almost every such case) a percentage (usually 35-40%) of the final settlement. No attorney in her right mind is going to come after a nurse who doesn't have malpractice insurance because it simply isn't worth it. Why bother? The attorney isn't doing this as a cause: she's hoping to make some money from it.

Such trials often require months or tedious, expensive preparation. Then there's the trial itself, complete with the attorney having to shell out money for expert witnesses, and other such fees. Don't make yourself inviting to such attorneys. Malpractice insurance is an open invitation.

As for the fear of garnishing of future wages, let's put this in perspective. Let's say you have a minimal net worth. You're telling me an attorney is going to salivate at the prospect of a judge ordering a garnishment of -- say -- $100 a week -- against your wages for the rest of your life to pay off the -- let's pick a number: $500,000? -- settlement we're hypothetically talking about? What are the chances you as a nurse will sit still for this? What are the odds you will simply declare bankruptcy, and go on with your life? The attorney is no fool. There are other fish to fry.

Jim Huffman, RN

In general, if a CNS is employed, rather than independent practice, any harm to the patient by her is considered to be covered by her employer, under the respondeat superior, or “let the master respond”, because the employer decides what an employee does (job description), and the manner of doing it. (p.182) If a CNS is sued, it may be individually, or as part of her organization. Infante and Muran, the authors of chapter 9, strongly recommend personal malpractice policies, and give guidelines for researching and choosing good coverage.
1) find a carrier that has experts in your specialty
2) know what exactly is covered by your policy, and review it periodically
3) know how the carrier handles legal defense expenses
a) claims from adverse event, if hospital has a lawyer, the policy holder my or may not choose to pay an independent lawyer for you
b) if APN is found negligent or the case is settled
c) if the fees are part of the damages, or in addition to the coverage of each incident
4) understand the difference between incident and aggregate coverage: occurrence is each event, aggregate is the total number of events over a certain period of years. $1 million occurance/$6 million aggregate, means up to $1 mill. per event, total of 6 events
5) Occurrence vs. claims made: occurrence is whatever policy you had at the time of the event, claims made means the incident must have happened and been filed during the policy life. (pp. 185-186)
According to Infante and Muran, NPs and CNSs usually have occurrence, the older type of insurance, while CNMs and CRNAs have claims made type.

According to the National Practioner Data Base (federal agency, all malpractice payments are reportable by law to them), less than 2% of all payments were to nurses as opposed to physicians, of that number, 2/3 was at the RN level, the other 1/3 to advanced practice nurses. Time span: 9-90 to 12-2000. Insurance is to cover the off chance of being sued, if suit were a certainty, no insurer would take you on, (or at least not for a very high premium).

I have car insurance, health insurance, long term diasability insurance, life insurance, house insurance, and don't want to have to use any of them, so I do my best not to need them. Why wouldn't I have work insurance too? Malpractice suits are a reality.