Glad I got malpractice insurance

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I was having dinner with my wife at IHOP last night, and in the booth behind us a couple was having an interesting conversation. I didn't hear the whole story since I was having my own conversation with my wife, but the guy behind us had some weird things to say to the person he was with. Seems he was talking about something he saw while he was in the ER. A lady there was crying and he was talking to her, she said her husband had just died, they did some kind of procedure on him after an emergency and he didn't survive. He asked her what they did, and after she told him he went on to tell her how they did all the wrong things. They should have done this and that and your husband would have lived. She asked him how he knows all this stuff he went on to tell her that he didn't know anything about medicine but "I know how the human body works." He advised her to sue everybody involved and she now is. I couldn't tell you what exactly he was talking about, it was about 1 am in the morning and I don't remember exactly what he said, but I do remember that I was thinking "What a trip, he has no clue what he is talking about." Even if you are a biology major and know all about how the human body works by itself does not mean you know anything about pharmacology and how these medicines act on the body and why they work like they do.

Just listening to these self-declared experts of the human body and all their medical training they recieved from "ER" and watching TLC and Discovery Channel reminded me that my is almost up, time to send them my annual $100 and sleep good at night.

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Very scary...I'm not a nurse yet, but talking to others, I get the sense that is a necessity. We live in such a letigious society, so it's scary to think of yourself going into a helping profession where you are not in it for the money, etc. and then to be sued if something goes wrong.

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I was having dinner with my wife at IHOP last night, and in the booth behind us a couple was having an interesting conversation. I didn't hear the whole story since I was having my own conversation with my wife, but the guy behind us had some weird things to say to the person he was with. Seems he was talking about something he saw while he was in the ER. A lady there was crying and he was talking to her, she said her husband had just died, they did some kind of procedure on him after an emergency and he didn't survive. He asked her what they did, and after she told him he went on to tell her how they did all the wrong things. They should have done this and that and your husband would have lived. She asked him how he knows all this stuff he went on to tell her that he didn't know anything about medicine but "I know how the human body works." He advised her to sue everybody involved and she now is. I couldn't tell you what exactly he was talking about, it was about 1 am in the morning and I don't remember exactly what he said, but I do remember that I was thinking "What a trip, he has no clue what he is talking about." Even if you are a biology major and know all about how the human body works by itself does not mean you know anything about pharmacology and how these medicines act on the body and why they work like they do.

Just listening to these self-declared experts of the human body and all their medical training they recieved from "ER" and watching TLC and Discovery Channel reminded me that my malpractice insurance is almost up, time to send them my annual $100 and sleep good at night.

I have also heard many people say things and thought "what a trip, he has no clue what he is talking about." Knowledge is power... Get better informed about what you are hoping that money will do for you, and what it will actually do for you.

Recommend you read the other threads on this site re: malpractice.

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"I didn't hear the whole story"

"Seems he was talking about"

"some kind of procedure"

"he didn't know anything about medicine"

"I couldn't tell you what exactly he was talking about"

" I don't remember exactly what he said"

"time to send them my annual $100 and sleep good at night"

Whenever I ask people for a real-time, verified, objective instance of a nurse being sued for malpractice, this is the kind of "he said, she said" story they come up with.

When folks on here point out that makes a nurse more (not less) liable for lawsuits, this is the kind of "evidence" we are greeted with.

As I always say: If owning malpractice insurance makes someone sleep better at night, go for it. But know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's money down the toilet, and makes the nurse in question a greatly enhanced target for unscrupulous attorneys.

Jim Huffman, RN

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Specializes in Public Health, DEI.
"I didn't hear the whole story"

"Seems he was talking about"

"some kind of procedure"

"he didn't know anything about medicine"

"I couldn't tell you what exactly he was talking about"

" I don't remember exactly what he said"

"time to send them my annual $100 and sleep good at night"

Whenever I ask people for a real-time, verified, objective instance of a nurse being sued for malpractice, this is the kind of "he said, she said" story they come up with.

When folks on here point out that malpractice insurance makes a nurse more (not less) liable for lawsuits, this is the kind of "evidence" we are greeted with.

As I always say: If owning malpractice insurance makes someone sleep better at night, go for it. But know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's money down the toilet, and makes the nurse in question a greatly enhanced target for unscrupulous attorneys.

Jim Huffman, RN

Case in point:

A few years ago, my agency got named in a lawsuit that we were kind of "swept up" into. A baby had died, and the court appointed a posthumous advocate. This advocate proceeded to name every Early Intervention entity in our county as a co-defendant. Never mind that we had never seen this baby, heard of this baby, had any contact of any kind with the baby's family. The legal departiment of our agency's fiscal unit, a large state university, handled everything, at considerable cost. Except, since a couple of us had , the fiscal unit did go after them for reimbursement. So, I've got a settlement on my record. In this case, I would have been better off without the malpractice insurance.

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WE had someone try to sue our facility because they didn't like the food and the AC wasn't cold enough! Go figure.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

I think that few people are going to air their personal reasons for having in public (ie the internet).

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Specializes in Hemodialysis, Home Health.

Sheesh. That guy must have slept at a Hoiday Inn the previous night. :stone

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EEK! I'm soooooo confused. To buy or not to buy? On one hand, I don't want $$$ hungry families/lawyers after me just b/c I have the coverage, but I also would not want to loose my home/future earnings b/c a lawsuit.......

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EEK! I'm soooooo confused. To buy or not to buy? On one hand, I don't want $$$ hungry families/lawyers after me just b/c I have the coverage, but I also would not want to loose my home/future earnings b/c a lawsuit.......

No one will sue you if you don't have insurance. Can't loose your home/future earnings. Attorneys don't do that. (isn't this already covered in this thread?)

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Sorry, wrong thread.

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Look at it this way:

Insurance companies base their premiums on how much they expect to pay out.

So....

-Nurses pay $100/yr

-Doctors pay multiple thousands $/Year

-Attorneys pay more each year they practice. I spoke to one that was paying about 5-6 thousand/year, with about 10 years of experience.

What does this say to you?

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