It seems that about 2/3rds of the posts on here mention either being sued or losing your license...it doesn't seem to matter what the topic is someone makes a comment about losing your license or being sued.
I am curious as to whether this is a valid fear or whether this is part of fear-based nursing culture.
1. How many years have you been a nurse?
2. How many nurses do you know personally that have been sued?
3. How many of those nurses who were sued have had to testify in court?
4. How many of those who testified were found guilty?
5. How many nurses do you know personally who have lost their license for patient related (non-criminal) actions? (By non - criminal I mean not for cases of drug diverting or robbing a back or something where the nurse knows what they are doing is illegal and will result in losing their license)
I'm with all of you. If the hospital can pin it on you, they will. I would not put my future in the hands of my employer. Having malpractice means I have my own lawyer that is looking out for me.
"In 1994, the current statistics on a national level taken from data reported in the National Practitioner Data Bank from 1990 to 1993 indicated that as of 1990, about five nurses in 10,000 are sued in a given year" (Kelly & Joel, 1995, p. 502). O'Sullivan (1996) reports an increase in suits brought against nurses working in critical care and obstetrics and against nurse practitioners.
Specializes in Peds, PACU, ICU, ER, OB, MED-Surg,.
14 years. 3 d/t taking narcotics. 1 that climbed on top of a restrained patient and slapped him for calling her a nasty name. Would you believe the board didn't take the license? Hospital allowed her to resign and she went on to be a nurse in a MD's office. I've been depositioned for criminal case (CPS), it sucks. It is scary. Do your charting.
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
I'm a GN and actually just had a required legal education class this morning. The way it sounds is that unless you do something on purpose (such as giving a wrong med on purpose), your employer will support you and they will be the ones sued if it goes to court. If they fire you first for making a huge mistake then you are pretty much on your own. Other things I learned today- the top areas that are sued are OR, OB, and ER (where I'm at!). Doctors are sued more often than nurses. Nurses rarely lose their license and almost NEVER have to pay for lawsuits. Also, they said that if you don't own up to a mistake if you realize that you make it than you are a LOT worse off than if you own up to it. I was also told never to carry your own legal insurance- because then lawyers WILL come after you and not the hospital. A big reason for being sued these days= poor documentation! Hope this helps somewhat!
I don't want to dissappoint you....but the first person to be blamed is the nurse. Example: the doctor orders and antibiotic and the dosage is 5 times the amount that can be safely tolerated by a child, the pharmacisit doesn't realize it is for a 40 lb child and the does is ok using the dose for a 200 lb adult and fills the rx, you the nurse hangs the antibiotic and kill the childs kidneys or liver.................IT IS YOUR FAULT.........You hung the drug......you know... the right drug, right time, right dose thing.......well.......you the nurse are responsible and believe you me if the family wants someones head on a platter it will be yours. If you give the drug and another reasonable and prudent nurse would find the behavior unacceptable.......you will be held accountable. The "immediate corrective" action that will be taken will be on you the nurse...You are the quickest, simplest "immediate disciplinary" action that will be taken to ensure that it will never happen again. Families when told that someone lost their job are usually placated that someone was held accountable and not sue the hospital. They just want someone to blame. The second an incident happends, especially if it a sentinel event, the hospital is looking where to place the blame and it will be with you. They will look for the quickest and cheapest way to back out of the situation as possible. Is it right? no.... Is it fair? no.....Does it happen all the time? yes. Be smart trust no one to protect your license but you!
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
I'm a GN and actually just had a required legal education class this morning. The way it sounds is that unless you do something on purpose (such as giving a wrong med on purpose), your employer will support you and they will be the ones sued if it goes to court. If they fire you first for making a huge mistake then you are pretty much on your own. Other things I learned today- the top areas that are sued are OR, OB, and ER (where I'm at!). Doctors are sued more often than nurses. Nurses rarely lose their license and almost NEVER have to pay for lawsuits. Also, they said that if you don't own up to a mistake if you realize that you make it than you are a LOT worse off than if you own up to it. I was also told never to carry your own legal insurance- because then lawyers WILL come after you and not the hospital. A big reason for being sued these days= poor documentation! Hope this helps somewhat!
Mandababy......You are correct that you should not lie as it will be worse if you do including delaying intervention to help the patient and lying is never productive.....but it is a fallicy that you will be more likely to be sued if you carry insurance. If god forbid something happends and you are mentioned in a suit as things can happen beyond your control. You can lose everything your house, home, your job, your license. Insurance will not only provide monetary compensation, but pays for legal representation for lawsuits or if your license is ever threatened. It is cheap...about 100 dollars a year but worth the piece of mind:yeah:I bought homeowners insurance not with the intention I would need it but it sure came in handy when my house caught fire and bruned to the ground!
I am now a Nurse Manager at another facility, and I have extremely stringent polices on narcotics. When I first took over the position we started having duragesic patches missing off the residents. Sure occasionally a patch falls off, but we were missing excessive amounts of patches. Ended up doing a facility investigation, had the entire nursing staff tested for Fentanyl, had the state come in and investigate, police investigation, and we never were able to figure out who it was. I have a feeling it was an employee who was terminated shortly before the nurses started noticing they were missing.
It was the worst investigation I have ever been through. I now have my charge nurses checking placement of these patches q 1 hour. It's a bit excessive, but it's something I had to do as an intervention. Many of the nurses keep asking me, if we can go to q shift checks, however my original plan of correction was for hourly checks for 6 months and until 100% compliance was achieved during 6 consecutive monthly audits.
I keep finding blanks in the MAR, so they continue to check these q 1 hour, and I enforce this to the max.
I never want to go through that again.
Q 1 hr checks do seem a bit excessive to me...just an idea, but how about treating a fentanyl patch placement check like any other narc count? i.e have 2 nurses at shift change physically check for placement and sign off that the patch is there.
Q 1 hr checks do seem a bit excessive to me...just an idea, but how about treating a fentanyl patch placement check like any other narc count? i.e have 2 nurses at shift change physically check for placement and sign off that the patch is there.
That's how it's done at both facilities I've worked at - and one of them is military. If someone came in Q1 hour to look at my back or arm or whatever, I'd have someone's head. Seriously. I get the intent but the real sufferer here is the patient. Let the poor patient get some rest - Q1 hour is overkill.
That's nothing there is a PA in my town who was found guilty of two counts of vehicular manslaughter bc she was face booking and driving and killed two people she hit then hit another car head on and injured two more. She got "judicial diversion" and received 4 years probation and n discipline on her license and when prob is up her record will be clean and pretty sure the TBON WILL NEVER EVEN KNOW IT HAPPENED
That's nothing there is a PA in my town who was found guilty of two counts of vehicular manslaughter bc she was face booking and driving and killed two people she hit then hit another car head on and injured two more. She got "judicial diversion" and received 4 years probation and n discipline on her license and when prob is up her record will be clean and pretty sure the TBON WILL NEVER EVEN KNOW IT HAPPENED
First, you just resurrected a 5 year old thread to share this. Second, the BON wouldn't be involved... she's a PA.
First, you just resurrected a 5 year old thread to share this. Second, the BON wouldn't be involved... she's a PA.
Well FIRST. I just saw it. Second. You are wrong. TN is a "Self report" state. if you don't report it on your license renewal there is a very good chance they will never know. Excuse me if I'm not okay with a murderer owning her own practice after the victims family pleading for her not being grandted probation.
Well FIRST. I just saw it. Second. You are wrong. TN is a "Self report" state. if you don't report it on your license renewal there is a very good chance they will never know. Excuse me if I'm not okay with a murderer owning her own practice after the victims family pleading for her not being grandted probation.
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muffylpn
129 Posts
I don't no where the nurse was from that said RNs make squat. I know that it's different in every state. I don't think that
52.00 hr base pay is squat. That is what the RNs with 20 yrs exp. make at my sm. 64 bed community hospital. Now that
is of course nothing compared to what a doctor makes. Mabey this was the point. My aunt has her masters and is also
a lawyer. She gives a malpractice lectures around the country. She has NEVER advised any nurse to be w/o ins.