Travelers: Do you carry Malpractice (Liability) Insurance?

Specialties Travel

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Just wanted to get some seasoned travelers opinion on this.

Do you purchase your own as a traveler? If so, from where?

Seems like a good thing to have, but others believe that having makes you more of a target. Does your agency cover you? or if something comes up you're on your own?

Thanks for any feedback!

~AK

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NSO is the largest professional liability company. The hospital's lawyer looks after the best interest of hospital. The agency lawyer looks after the best interests of the agency. Their best interest could include throwing you under the bus. Wouldn't you like a lawyer who looks after your best interests? That is what personal insurance gets you. Because having your own lawyer may cause conflicts with the hospital plan of action, they actively discourage staff from getting their own insurance.

That should be convincing enough, but at a tax deductible cost of around $100 a year, this should be a no brainer. Insurance also provides for hiring representation for license defense if a BON holds a disciplinary hearing (I think it is $10,000). This is perhaps even more useful to you potentially than the malpractice coverage.

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Specializes in ICU / PCU / Telemetry / Oncology.

I have my own, only because you never know what can lie ahead, and you dont want to depend on anyone else telling you that you are covered under their insurance. This is your way of protecting yourself. It is a fairly small investment in the grand scheme of things.

Sent from my iPad using allnurses

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Just as counterpoint to my earlier reply, is extrodinarily inexpensive (Texas aside). This demonstrates the really low risk of legal jeopardy in nursing. As a result, most nurses do just fine not having personal insurance. That said, insurance is meant to be inexpensive as a risk pool shared by many.

The cost of malpractice insurance in Texas is four times or so that of other states. While not cheap, this also points out that you should definitely have it there as your risks of legal jeopardy are substantially higher than nationally. The culture in Texas is also that many nurses are reported to the BON who is pretty aggressive at sanctioning even minor or stupid stuff. Having representation at your hearing could be a career saver.

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Thank you NedRN, I have learned so much about travel nursing by reading your feedback on multiple topics and from your responses to my own questions....You are my unofficial Travel Nurse Guru!

I would PM you to thank you but I don't have that capability yet. I went ahead and got the insurance through NSO, better safe than sorry. I start my first Assignment in August in California! =)

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You are very welcome! Congrats on the first assignment. Hope it goes well. California is generally a great place to work.

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