Responsibilities and liabilities of nursing

[Susie2310]

I am not currently working as a nurse, but I am coming to the conclusion that the responsibilities and liabilities of practicing nursing in a direct patient care role, for me outweigh the reward (financial, personal satisfaction of helping people). In a malpractice/negligence claim I understand that an injury that a reasonable person would expect is excluded from coverage. An injury may be physical or psychological. As a nurse my practice is governed by many laws: The Nurse Practice Act for my state; Standards of Care for my specialty; Patient's Bill of Rights; HIPAA; facility policies and procedures, and more. It is one thing to meet these legal requirements when you have received sufficient training as a nursing student, and your working conditions (new or experienced nurse) allow for safe practice, i.e. adequate orientation; adequate staffing; reasonable patient ratios; sufficient equipment; administrative support. It is another thing entirely to try to meet these legal requirements when these conditions do not prevail.

These are my personal thoughts. I wondered what other nurses are thinking about the responsibilities and liabilities of nursing in regard to practicing nursing.

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

In a malpractice/negligence claim I understand that an injury that a reasonable person would expect is excluded from coverage. An injury may be physical or psychological.

Are you referring to this, which is an exclusion of my own policy:

to acts or omission by any Insured expected or intended to cause Bodly Injury or Property Damage regardless or whether or not such act or omission was intended to cause the specific Bodily Injury or Property Damage sustained.

I think this means that you aren't covered when what you do is expected or intended to hurt the patient. In other words, when you are Annie Wilkes' twin sister (re: Stephen King's book Misery). The second part of the policy wording means you won't be covered if you say, "I wanted to make him sick, not kill him!!"

From the Proliability website, which is where I got my policy:

[h=2]What is Professional Liability Insurance?[/h]Professional Liability Insurance protects service-providing professionals in the event of a liability claim. For nurses, surgeons, dentists and other medical professionals, such policies are known as medical malpractice insurance and pay in the event a judge rules they have committed professional errors that resulted in damages or injury to a patient. Nearly all licensed professionals who are employed within the healthcare field should have medical malpractice insurance coverage to pay for any negligence or liability that might result from routine services.

[Susie2310]

dudette10, thank you for replying. I do not have any legal training, and my thinking about this topic may be quite incorrect. In regard to your first question, I am not sure if we are referring to the same thing.

These are just my thoughts, but I keep thinking that the word "expectation" does not refer to one's personal expectations or intentions, but to what would be expected by a "reasonable person." I think if one commits errors in one's professional nursing practice that result in injury or damages to a patient, and if one is deemed to not have practiced as a "reasonable nurse", i.e. committed errors that a "reasonable nurse" would expect to result in injury or damages, then that qualifies as an exclusion.