Malpractice Insurance?

[Jmiami]

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.

[Jmiami]

Again, thanks very very much for all of your help on this. No question about it, I'll be going to this site and securing my private insurance as soon as I receive my acceptance letter to nursing school.

[CRNA1982]

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!

Your insurance premium has never been over $100.00/year because of the fact that nurses rarely ever get sued for anything; therefore your premiums are ridiculously low... I challenge anybody to any evidence based arguments on this matter... Lets talk.