Least Liability?Most Liability?

[HeartsOpenWide, RN]

When I took psyhc nursing I told the RN I was working with that I wanted to go into OB. He said he would never work in OB because it has too much liability and that he went into psych nursing because the only patients that die are ones that kill themselves...

Which job in nursing has the least liability?

[netglow, ASN, RN]

Well, nothin like getting to the point.

[PostOpPrincess, BSN, RN]

Most liability: Just being in the medical field or associated with hospitals with $$$.

Least liability: This is a litigious country. The only answer would be living on an island in complete solitude.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Hospice nursing would seem to have the least liability for several reasons. All of your hospice patients have sufficient documentation to bolster their terminal prognoses, so the outcome is known to all involved parties (family, staff, and the patient). Families who actually want a peaceful and dignified death for their loved ones through hospice are very unlikely to engage in litigation. In addition, it is overwhelmingly difficult to get any law firm to assist in filing a lawsuit on behalf of a deceased patient who had a terminal prognosis, because legal action is expensive and attorneys typically take on cases that they feel they'll win.

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

I know in Pedi the nurses are told to be concerned about that because people are really touchy about how you treat their sick kids. Go figure. But in reality, only the lawyers and insurance companies have the statistics.

[Simba&NalasMom, LPN]

I'm sorry I don't have an answer for you, but I'm having a very opinionated day: I feel that it is foolish to choose a specialty based on the liability. It is true that OB docs have a pretty high amount of litigation, but I still feel you should go for what you're most passionate about. If you go into something with "less liability" but hate the specialty, you will set yourself up for trouble anyway because you won't be doing the best job d/t having lukewarm or worse feelings about it.

[elkpark]

When I took psyhc nursing I told the RN I was working with that I wanted to go into OB. He said he would never work in OB because it has too much liability and that he went into psych nursing because the only patients that die are ones that kill themselves...

Which job in nursing has the least liability?

I don't know about individual nurses, but plenty of hospitals and physicians get sued because they failed to prevent suicidal people killing themselves -- that's kinda the point of being admitted to an inpatient psychiatric unit, that the hospital staff are providing a safe, controlled environment to keep people safe while they're in acute crisis ... I worked as a psych surveyor for my state and the Feds for several years, and we v. frequently investigated complaints against psychiatric units that were obviously going to end up as lawsuits (I have no idea whether specific nurses were going to be named in those suits, but there's always a good chance of that).

I don't know about liability of different nursing specialties, but I know that OB, anesthesia, and psychiatry are among the most frequently sued medical specialties.

[diane227, LPN, RN]

OB has liability as does psychiatry. All you have to have is one patient in psychiatry who gets discharged who leaves the hospital and kills themselves or their spouse after to see how quick the legal system gets on your butt. But people get REAL nervous about having babies and you see lawyers going after the medical profession on TV every day for having something "go wrong" in the delivery room. I don't carry malpractice insurance but I would if I worked OB.