Malpractice Insurance?

Nurses General Nursing

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What do you pay for your (RN's)? Do you pay this amount monthly / yearly? Does this amount vary state by state? I've been given advice by a friend who is an RN to always have your own malpractice insurance, even though the hospital might say that you are covered under theirs because if something does happen, at the end of the day the hospital's interest will lie in protecting itself, not you. I'm a pre-nursing student and just gleaning nuggets of wisdom from current nurses.

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Specializes in Anesthesia.

You don't need . I'm a CRNA and I don't even own malpractice insurance. As long as you are working for the hospital, you will be fine. The "Deepest Pocket Doctrine" is a fine example of why you don't need insurance.

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There are a bunch of existing threads here about the pros and supposed "cons" of carrying your own insurance -- I encourage you to take a look at them.

I am one of those RNs who would never consider working a single day without my own coverage. Way back when I was in nursing school (back in the Dark Ages :)), my father, a physician, advised me to always carry my own insurance and never depend upon an employer to look out for my best interests. Everything I've seen in the 25 years since then that I've been practicing nursing has just reinforced to me what good advice that was. Particularly when I was working as a hospital surveyor for my state and CMS for several years, and investigating complaints and unusual deaths in healthcare settings, I saw first-hand many nurses get scapegoated and "thrown under the bus" by their employers in an attempt to deflect blame/responsibility away from the facility/employer. If those nurses had been depending on being protected by their employer's insurance, they were screwed.

My insurance has never been over ~$100/yr, even after I went to grad school and became a psych CNS (no Rx authority), paid once a year in a lump sum (best $100 I spend every year! :)) Premiums vary depending on what state you're in and probably some other variables I'm not really aware of. I hear that premiums in some states are quite a bit higher than what I pay.

Best wishes for your journey!

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Specializes in Family Practice, Mental Health.

Assuming you make an average of 35.00 per hour as an RN, you will spend all of about 2 1/2 hours per year paying off which can prevent the following from happening:

You and your hospital are named in a lawsuit because your name is somewhere in the patient's medical record. Your hospital spends money defending you (i.e. "them") in a lawsuit, whereupon they (the hospital), then turn around and sue you for compensation.

This is what has the possibility of happening when you count upon your hospital to defend you in a lawsuit.

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Assuming you make an average of 35.00 per hour as an RN, you will spend all of about 2 1/2 hours per year paying off an insurance which can prevent the following from happening:

You and your hospital are named in a lawsuit because your name is somewhere in the patient's medical record. Your hospital spends money defending you (i.e. "them") in a lawsuit, whereupon they (the hospital), then turn around and sue you for compensation.

This is what has the possibility of happening when you count upon your hospital to defend you in a lawsuit.

If they choose to cover you at all -- they can just as easily decide to blame you for the incident and cut you loose (which, as I said, I personally have seen happen to other nurses quite a few times). If that happens and you don't have your own coverage, you're !@#$ out of luck, because there's no insurance company on the planet that will sell you coverage for an incident that has already happened.

Also, the standard nursing liability coverage policies include coverage for legal representation if you have to defend your license before the Board, which your employer's insurance won't cover and which is much more likely to happen to any of us at some point in our careers than actually being sued (which is a pretty rare occurrence for nurses). They also include coverage for legal representation if you're called as a witness in a suit against someone else (oh, say, your employer or a physician you work with ...). If I were in that situation, I would definitely want my own attorney, and would not want to be taking advice and direction from the hospital's attorneys (who are being paid to represent and protect the hospital's interests, not mine).

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Specializes in ER, Trauma.

As noted, the hospital's insurance takes care of the hospitals interest first. Be assured that anybody can sue anybody at any time for anything. Also, whenever there's the slightest hint of a lawsuit, the hospital will fire a nurse, guilty or not (never fails to impress a jury!). They may also fire other staff, because of the theory of "divide and conquer." Everybody who gets sued will have to have their own lawyers making it a big cluster. A ruling against you could mean that your pay would be garnished for years. You could be just recording in a code and end up being sued because of a bad outcome completely out of your control.

Me? I carried insurance as an EMT, as an LPN, and as an RN. I HATE lawyers. But I like sleeping at night. For less than $100 per year I had plenty of insurance, and if I were to be sued, that $100 investment promised me a free lawyer for less than I would have had to pay out of pocket for just 1 hour of a lawyers time to defend me. It's such a cheap investment, I always recomend you have your own.

Sorry if it sounds like scare tactics, I feel strongly about the subject, I also hate insurance salesman, but so much peace of mind for such a low cost is quite a bargain.

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Don't work a minute without insurance. I pay about a $100 a year through www.nso.com and it's well worth every penny. You need to look out for yourself and protect your license. Also, you don't have to announce to your employer, co-workers, patients, etc. that you have private . That is your business not theirs. Get it and don't look back.

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Specializes in Med/Surg - Internal Medicine.

get some! it's piece of mind at the very least....check out nso's website....if you are a new grad, i believe it's like $54...which is what paid. totally worth it because in the long run you have to look out for yourself...there are a lot of money hungry people out there looking to put the blame on someone else....no matter how caring of a nurse you are!:twocents:

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Specializes in Cath Lab/ ICU.

I wouldn't work a single minute without insurance. Not one single minute.

I'd go without car insurance and health insurance before I went without malpractice...

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Specializes in Med-Surg/DOU/Ortho/Onc/Rehab/ER/.

Thats a good idea

better safe than sorry

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Specializes in Rehabilitation.

This was really full of some great information. Good question!

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Specializes in NICU, Post-partum.
What do you pay for your malpractice insurance (RN's)? Do you pay this amount monthly / yearly? Does this amount vary state by state? I've been given advice by a friend who is an RN to always have your own malpractice insurance, even though the hospital might say that you are covered under theirs because if something does happen, at the end of the day the hospital's interest will lie in protecting itself, not you. I'm a pre-nursing student and just gleaning nuggets of wisdom from current nurses.

The hospital's insurance covers you ONLY if you follow a policy exactly.

This means you are not covered if you make an honest mistake or are unjustly accused of something.

Insurance is cheap for nurses because nurses are rarely sued, unlike physicians, where they are easily sued, that is why they pay thousands.

I pay $180 a year, paid yearly, for $2,000,000 in coverage and it will also cover me for about $30K in legal expenses.

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