new grad, insurance?

[_zoubisoubisou_]

As a new nurse, do I need to purchase insurance or is this something that is taken out of my paycheck my the hospital I work for?

[amoLucia]

Meant to add - there's also the belief that if you DON'T have insurance, you're just not rich enough to be sued. Then you'll be omitted. WRONG! Somebody sues you - they don't care if you can pay or not. You can stand to lose your assets just like you could if you're uninsured and in an auto accident. You can kiss your future goodbye and that of your family.

Then there's the cost of retaining an attorney if needed. Well, that's why you've already paid your premium.

(Dang! I ought to get a sales job for one of these malpractice insurance companies!)

[OrganizedChaos, LVN]

I get the importance of it but why am I reading stories where people are saying it made them more of a target to be sued?

How? That makes no sense. That's like saying "Getting car insurance will make me more of a target to get hit" or "Getting health insurance will me more likely to get sick". No one knows if you have malpractice insurance or not. I didn't know if my coworkers had malpractice insurance or not & my patients had no clue I didn't have malpractice insurance.

If you don't want to get it, then don't. But if something does happen, then you won't have protection. I won't go to nursing school or start working again without it. That's my 0.2¢.

[RiskManager]

I get the importance of it but why am I reading stories where people are saying it made them more of a target to be sued?

From a reply to a comment in my thread linked above:

Quote from noahsmama

Thanks for an interesting article!

I do have a question. You mention in your article that having individual Liability Insurance could potentially make a nurse more likely to get sued. What I don't understand is, how would the insurance company know which nurses do or don't have their own insurance?

Thanks!

Sorry for the delayed response; we have been moving these last several days and I have been away from the computer. The only way one would find out if a nurse has insurance would be to ask. The persons most likely to ask, after a claim has occurred, would be the plaintiff attorney and/or the hospital's insurance company.

If the nurse has his/her own insurance, and they are in a state in which their own insurance is primary or responds equally with the hospital's insurance, then that represents another set of policy limits to pay the claim. The more insurance policies plaintiff counsel can tap, the higher the potential recovery. Also, in some cases, the hospital's insurance company may seek to limit their financial exposure to the acts of the nurse. If the nurse has his/her own insurance, then the hospital's insurance company may subrogate the claim or tender the defense of the claim to the nurse's insurance company, and tell the nurse's insurance company to either pay up or take over the defense of the claim/lawsuit. There would be no financial incentive to do this if the nurse does not have an individual nurse malpractice policy. Remember that the hospital/healthcare facility is legally liable for the acts of the employee under 'respondeat superior', but this does not prevent the hospital's insurance company from trying to limit their financial exposure by shifting the responsibility for paying for that liability. If the nurse has an insurance policy, that can make it financially viable to shift that responsibility to the nurse's insurance company. If the nurse does not have a policy, it would generally not make sense to go after them financially, unless they are independently wealthy with lots of liquid financial assets to seize.

So what this all means is that after a claim/lawsuit is filed, discovery is conducted of the staff, and one of the questions that may be asked is if they have their own individual policy. If the plaintiff attorney or the hospital/facility's insurance company then decides to go after that policy, the nurse will likely be individually named in the claim or lawsuit as a defendant so as to trigger the coverage and then we are off to the races. The sticky wicket for the nurse in that instance is forever more, they have to answer 'yes' to the licensure/employment/credentialing questionnaires asking if they have ever been named in a malpractice claim or suit.

Now mind you, I do not think this possibility would be sufficient to decide against the purchase of your own individual policy. But it is a reality that if you represent another set of deep pockets through insurance, you could get dragged in as a result.

[SiwanRN]

I personally would not work a single day without malpractice insurance. RiskManager has given an excellent point, but you are the only one who can decide what you are comfortable with. My nursing school required all of us to have our own individual student nurse malpractice insurance policies, and I felt it valuable to continue my coverage after I graduated. I am surprised that more nursing schools do not require their students to get a student policy. I think mine was only $30/year through NSO.

[_zoubisoubisou_]

Thanks everyone for your input. Wondering if SNA gets any discounts. Time to check on that.