Do I need Malpractice insurance?

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Wondering if it's necessary to get my own ? I'm a new-grad; and have no idea what to look for, amounts, coverages ect...

Any words of advice, recommended companies, ect would be great!

Thanks!

Specializes in Neuroscience/Brain and Stroke.

Most hospitals do have hold insurance for their nurses but if you screw up and they can prove it was all you, they WILL throw you under the bus to save the hospital, get your own insurance!

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

Click on this excellent article about whether nurses need :

https://allnurses.com/legal-nursing/should-i-carry-391596.html

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For a couple dollars per week, it's well worth the peace of mind. Besides, when patients start threatening to sue, it's nice to be able to shut them up with a, "Well go right ahead, that's why I have insurance." :)

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I'm a new grad that starts next month in med-surg and you can bet your booty that on day one I'll have coverage!

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Specializes in Orthopedics.

When I was in nursing school, we were required to have our own coverage. As I begin practicing on my own, you can bet I'm getting my own coverage! When it comes down to it, the hospital will not have your back. CYA CYA CYA CYA... That was my favorite professor's motto. Words I live by everyday!

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Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.

Yes, yes, yes. In a malpractice suit your hospital will throw you under the bus in 10 seconds flat to save their butt. I have had my own since I was a student nurse and have kept it since. My two friends didn't get any for the first few years of their careers and then went to a convention where a RN told a story (true) of a nurse that made a medication error on a peds patient that cause longterm damage. Because she didn't have her own malpractice they sued her personally. She has a HUGE amount taken out of her paycheck for the rest of her life, can no longer practice as an RN, and can not have anything in her name other than a car...can never buy a house.

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Specializes in Cardiac intermediate care.

I am in school now, and - like Jammin' RN - we are required to have our own . Like the insurance I have on my home and cars, it is something I will never go without. There are too many people who will not take responsibility for what goes wrong, and if you are remotely connected to the case, they will look to you to be the scapegoat. I will not let people like that ruin my life or my ability to provide for my family, and neither should you, OP.

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Specializes in Cath lab, acute, community.

In Australia I think being a part of the union kind of covers you?

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Specializes in CCRN, ALS, BLS, PALS.

Generally speaking, as long as you do everything you are supposed to do including looking up drugs, following orders, ensuring the 5 rights, and documenting correctly you should be okay. If you feel like you might not do these all the time, I think you should consider it. I've never even came close to needing it, but it's pretty cheap, so why not.

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Generally speaking, as long as you do everything you are supposed to do including looking up drugs, following orders, ensuring the 5 rights, and documenting correctly you should be okay.

Ah yes, the "I'm perfect so it would never happen to me" rationale. People that make mistakes don't actually PLAN to make those mistakes. I've had to use my car insurance when I hit another driver. I didn't PLAN to do so. Still happened. Same with work. Especially in ever increasingly impossible patient ratios.

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Generally speaking, as long as you do everything you are supposed to do including looking up drugs, following orders, ensuring the 5 rights, and documenting correctly you should be okay.

How confident are you that you are following your facility's written policy/procedure 100% every time on every procedure? Have you read your facility's written policy/procedure for all the things you do regularly to be sure you are doing them exactly as your employer wants you to? Do you look up the P&P and read it beforehand when you have to do an unfamiliar procedure to make sure you are following the facility's guidelines? Because if you're not following the P&P manual 100% accurately, 100% completely, 100% of the time, and something goes seriously sideways with one of your clients, you are at risk of being scapegoated by your employer.

It's not even just a matter of having done something wrong. There might have once been a day when your healthcare employer would stand by you if you had acted in good faith but something bad happened anyway, but, nowadays, as soon as an incident occurs which can reasonably be forseen to end up eventually as a lawsuit, the hospital risk management/legal people start combing the records looking for someone, anyone, they can blame to reduce the liability of the overall institution. I saw this happen repeatedly when I worked as a surveyor for my state and CMS for several years. We would frequently investigate complaints or bad outcomes that you could see were likely to end up as lawsuits. We would be literally met in the hospital lobby by the hospital's top administrators and legal counsel, who would fall all over themselves to explain to us that it wasn't the hospital's fault ABC had happened, their internal investigation had determined it was Nurse X's (or more than one nurse) fault, and, to show their good will and concern about the situation, they have already fired Nurse X. On reviewing the medical records, it was quite clear that Nurse X hadn't really done anything worse than have the bad luck to be assigned to that particular client on that particular shift -- but the hospital legal people have found some flimsy reason to blame Nurse X, and, if this actually does go to court, they are going to use that argument to attempt to reduce the hospital's liability. I cannot tell you how many times I personally saw this exact scenario play out in real life in hospitals across my state.

Nurse X stopped being covered by the hospital's insurance the moment the hospital decided to blame her/him for the incident -- shoot, they're not only not going to defend her/him, they're going to go to court and argue as vigorously and convincingly as they can that the incident was her/his fault. Now, if Nurse X doesn't already have her/his own insurance, Nurse X is seriously screwed, because there is no insurance company on the planet that will sell you insurance to cover something that has already happened. If this does end up being a lawsuit, s/he will have to pay for legal representation out of her/his own pocket, and each hour of the attorney's services will cost more than the total annual premium would have for the insurance.

Also, as already noted, while the risk of any individual nurse being sued for malpractice is quite small, your own insurance also pays for legal representation if you have to go before the BON, and if you are called as a witness in a suit against someone else, either of which is much more likely to happen during your career than actually being sued yourself, and you would certainly want to have legal representation in both cases. Your own insurance also covers you away from your employment -- if you choose to volunteer in some capacity, help out a neighbor or friend, or respond to an accident/emergency situation.

I've never used my insurance (knock on wood!), but I would never consider working a single day without my own coverage. That was my father's (a physician) advice 'way back when I was in nursing school, and everything I've seen since then in my career has just underscored what excellent advice it was. I have a hard time imagining that there are still people who feel comfortable depending on their employers to protect their interests.

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I once met a legal nurse consultant who was teaching a Kaplan course here in TX. She told me she always advised new grad nurses not to get it. She explained that she had been a legal nurse for over 15 yrs and shes never seen anyone get sued unless they were insured. She said only when they find out that you are insured is when they come after you. I remember exactly what she said and i can quote her... She said "Once they find out theres money to go after then you become a target". Most of the time they will try to go after the institution. Not sure if this may or may not help. I chose not to get it because of her advice

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