Liability Insurance-School won't share?

[sunnyRN1]

I requested a copy of my limited Liability Insurance that was automatically purchased through my school and was a part of my tuition account statement. My adviser said that they cannot give me a copy of the insurance - they can only send it to my preceptor or preceptor site.

Has anyone else been told this? This seems strange..

Thanks!

[RiskManager]

What they are probably talking about is a certificate of insurance (COI) that proves that you have insurance coverage. You are not the actual policyholder; the school is. In the insurance world, we keep track of where we send our COI since we don't want people representing that they have coverage when they may not, in a given situation. If you had the COI, you could hand it out to whomever as evidence of coverage when you in fact are not covered (the policy has expired, you didn't pay the premium, you are no longer a student, etc.). So we send the COI directly from the insurance company or broker to the person or business who needs evidence of coverage.

[gelli.25]

My school sends it directly to my clinical site as well. However, I did not request a copy - did not feel the need to.

[xenogenetic]

By the way, I would buy your own as well since you don't know the terms of the policy. Getting your own is not that expensive....probably not more than a couple hundred dollars.

[lhflanurseNP, APRN]

I called my RN malpractice insurer and we "upgraded" to a student NP at like almost nothing. This way I was comfortable with my own coverage as well as what the school provided. I have always carried my own malpractice regardless of where I was working.

[RiskManager]

In regards to buying your own policy, here is my standard comment:

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing...sk-999441.html

^^^I generally recommend the CNA policy most commonly sold by NSO. The Liberty Mutual policy sold by ProLiability is also an option as is the MedPro policy sold by affinity marketing on this site, but CNA has the largest market share by far. Just make an informed decision on what you are buying, and realize that the policy is written such that it will only very rarely cover you for malpractice, if you are a nurse employed by a hospital or other facility. If your state has an aggressive BON that files many complaints, this is an argument for buying a policy. Bear in mind that the policy provides up to $ 25,000 legal reimbursement for BON complaints filed against your license. There is no coverage nor legal reimbursement for BON investigations; it has to be an actual complaint filed against your license for the licensure defense coverage to apply.

Many people buy the policy because they think that if they are involved in a malpractice claim or licensure action, the insurance company will automatically provide them with an attorney or legal defense, and this simply is not true. Coverage is triggered only in very specific circumstances. I have spoken at length about this, so you can search on my posts for details. Be wary of risk management advice from someone with no actual training or experience in the profession.