Malpractice Insurance.......Is it necessary???

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I was wondering how many GN/RN/LVN have purchased on their own apart from the hosp? If you do have it on your own, do you shop around for it like "car insurance" or did the school you graduated from have some one they recommended? Also, did you disclose it to the hosp. where you took your position at?

Thanks

I have had my insurance through NSO for almost 25 yrs. When I was in nusring school they required it. When I graduated I then flipped the policy from student to nurse.

There are different types of of insurance, forgiving for not remembering the names, but be aware of which you are purchasing.

The one that you want will cover you whenever you are sued (20 yrs after the fact) as long as the insurance was in affect when the incident occured.

The other will cover you only if you still have insurance on the date you are sued. Which means if you retire, in order to be safe you must continue to carry insurance even if you no long work.

I've had many diccusions regarding pro's and con's about having insurance and my thought is that I will continue to carry insurance. I do not believe that if you DO NOT have insurance you WILL NOT be sued because people will sue for anything now days. Common sence tells me that when I order coffee I wouldn't want it if it wasn't HOT!!!!!

If I give up 1 Starbuck's Latte a week for 6 months it's paid for.

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I've heard it is a bad idea to get malpractice insurance, and was given an example of a hospital department that was sued (OR) and the nurses/staff who carried malpractice insurance were sought out and named in the law suit even though they had nothing to do with the lawsuit. I was told if you don't have insurance you won't get sued.

The company I work for now requires it, but as soon as the case I am working is over, right or wrong ,I'm not planning to renew.

I heard that for years and it's not true!

First of all, for all of you pro NSO people out there, I had a policy with them for years, when I moved to TX (yes a notorious lawsuit happy state) they more than tripled my premium and I am not an L&D nurse or any other high risk category, at the time I was an LVN working LTAC vent hospitals.

Family members threatened lawsuits and/or to "have my license" left and right for everything from not having enough chairs in the room to accomidate all of the visitors to not changing a pillowcase that had a spot of red liquid tylenol on it.

My former colleague is going through a lawsuit right now. She coded this patient and the patient died, they tried to sue the hospital and lost, so now they are going after every nurse that ever touched the patient, one by one.

This patient had multi-system failure and obviously didn't have a snowball's chance in hell to survive, she was 80+ years of age, but obviously we didn't do enough for her in the eyes of the family. $$$$$$

I have another friend at the same hospital who fought charges of narcotic misappropriation brought on by administration (and was successful) but had to face the TX board of nursing alone with no representation because she had no . She didn't hire a lawyer because she was sure enough that since she didn't do anything wrong that she would be exonerated. Luckily she was right in this case but if it was me I'd want a lawyer.

A colleague at my current employer has a husband who is also a nurse. A female patient cried rape and the police showed up on their door and took him away in handcuffs. He was fingerprinted, jailed, etc. and then released with no charges that could stick, but as a man, it scared the heck out of me.

In this day and age, if a woman cries rape it is very taboo not to automatically take her side and believe her. You'll hear the rhetoric of "victimizing her further" by not automatically believing her story.

You don't actually have to do anything wrong in your nursing practice to get accused of wrong-doing. Anyone can sue you or bring charges against you, whether or not they win is another story but someone can and will make your life a nightmare in the meantime over greed, pride, attention, or power hunger.

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People will sue you with or without insurance. People are sue-happy. I know b/c insurance is my first career. It's less than $100 per year, and it's worth it. Who pays the lawyers costs if you get pulled into something? You want someone other than the policy through your employer supporting you. This idea that you only get sued if you have insurance is balogney and ignorant. I don't care what department you work in. If you never have to use it, then consider yourself lucky.

Many good professionals have claims filed against them. It's not about being competent professional, it's about treating someone who feels they were harmed. Right or wrong, I'd rather pay less than $100 per year (on average) in case I ever need representation, than take the risk. Attorney's fees are high. Claims payments are high. People who are going to claim harm make sure they have representation, you can't take them on by just claiming you did your job correctly. And maybe you work for a great organization, but they can't always protect you.

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FYI, the policy through your employer has vested interest in your employer first. If something goes wrong, do you think that the insurance company is going to say that they are a bad hospital or maybe they just hired one bad nurse but are otherwise a great hospital?

If they can point fingers at you to relieve themselves of responsibility, they will do it in a heartbeat.

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Specializes in ER/ICU/STICU.

I actually had an RN working for a lawyer come into our lecture one day and talk to us about our own insurance. To sum it up, she said that it is not necessary to have your own if you are going to be working in a hospital (this pertains to NJ laws) because the hospital will automatically insure you upon your hiring. She also said it could be a bad thing because if a suit is ever filed and the hospital knows you have your own insurance, they may leave you to fight it on your own.

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I actually had an RN working for a lawyer come into our lecture one day and talk to us about our own insurance. To sum it up, she said that it is not necessary to have your own if you are going to be working in a hospital (this pertains to NJ laws) because the hospital will automatically insure you upon your hiring. She also said it could be a bad thing because if a suit is ever filed and the hospital knows you have your own insurance, they may leave you to fight it on your own.

That only makes sense if the claim is filed against you the employee only. However, insurance or not, who has deeper pockets? The RN with an insurance policy or the hospital? So 9 times out of 10, the hospital is going to be named with you. And they can't just up and drop out to leave you to fight alone, b/c they are named also.

Bottom line, if the hospital thinks they don't want to defend you along with themselves, they're not going to. We're dispensible, even in a staffing shortage. They'll cut their losses if they have to, but not simply b/c you have your own insurance policy. They'll focus on themselves b/c true or false, there is a reasonable case against you and they want to distance themselves. They'll do that if you carry malpractice or not.

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.
I've heard it is a bad idea to get malpractice insurance, and was given an example of a hospital department that was sued (OR) and the nurses/staff who carried malpractice insurance were sought out and named in the law suit even though they had nothing to do with the lawsuit. I was told if you don't have insurance you won't get sued.

The company I work for now requires it, but as soon as the case I am working is over, right or wrong ,I'm not planning to renew.

I'm not sure I understand the logic here ...

Family members who sue are grieving, mad at the world, feeling guilty, have an inflated sense of entitlement (aka "it's all about me" complex), out for a buck ... any number of things. I would think that they generally either direct their anger at certain individuals (rightly or wrongly), or vow to take a swipe at everyone who came within 50 feet of the patient.

Whether or not a nurse is individually insured won't be known until later in the discovery process.

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FYI, the policy through your employer has vested interest in your employer first. If something goes wrong, do you think that the insurance company is going to say that they are a bad hospital or maybe they just hired one bad nurse but are otherwise a great hospital?

If they can point fingers at you to relieve themselves of responsibility, they will do it in a heartbeat.

Exactly. It is worth the hundred dollars a year to protect yourself. Your employer is only looking out for themselves. If they can get out of a suite by sacrificing you they will and then you lose everything that you have work so hard for.

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I was wondering how many GN/RN/LVN have purchased malpractice insurance on their own apart from the hosp? If you do have it on your own, do you shop around for it like "car insurance" or did the school you graduated from have some one they recommended? Also, did you disclose it to the hosp. where you took your position at?

Thanks

I am a new grad RN at a big metropolitan public hospital. This issue just came up for me. After I was hired, I called up the nurse manager and asked her where I should buy my insurance from since I had no idea. She said she has never had insurance and didn't know any nurse who does. She also said that "as long as I practiced under the nursing standard I was covered by the hospital." (Of course, if I accidentally screw something up, I'm obviously not practicing under the standard -- which is why I want coverage in case something ever goes wrong.) I replied to her that I was under the impression (from one of my nursing instructors) that this is very important coverage to have. She asked the county attorney for the hospital, and this person replied that I am covered by the hospital unless I "intentionally" injure a patient -- which of course I would never do. However, by the time I got that response, I had already gone ahead and bought it. It was only $50 and I am always willing to pay for peace of mind. This is a discount rate for my first year. Next year, it will be $100. I don't know yet whether I'll renew. Probably. I worked too many years in law firms before becoming a nurse -- I always say my brain was infected with "worst case scenario disease"!

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It's wise to have because you never know when your hospital will turn on you. I've seen long term employees just spit out in a heartbeat. No loyalty anymore.

Also, society is more sue happy than twenty or thirty years ago. Poor souls who we would like to rest in peace-given their horrible conditions--have family members that want to sue because Mom couldn't be saved in the ER.

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Specializes in Med/Surge.

I have been doing my preceptorship in ER for the last part of Nursing School and on Tuesday, we had a Mother that came in with her 7 y.o. daughter and we were packed with serious and life threatening patients according to Maslow, so it took some time before we could get to some of the less serious-we triaged her and there was nothing visibly wrong with the child-no lacerations, no contusions, everything was WNL. The mother had waited 45 minutes and asked when the Doc would be able to see the child. I explained the other seriousness of the cases and she got mad and left AMA. I was thinking OMG, I am going to loose my license before I even get it. Luckily, the school has insurance on us and will cover us when we were students even when we graduate but I KNOW now I am spending the $$$ on cause I could easily see this person filing a law suit!!

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