Professional Liability Insurance for Nurses
Many people do not ponder on the possibility of some form of malpractice or misdiagnosis occurring during their time as patient. They put their trust solely in the healthcare provider. More importantly nurses hardly ever consider being the one that causes harm or the one whom neglects a patient, let alone misdiagnose a patient. When entering the nursing field one needs to look at all options that will help protect them from sustaining any loss. Many nurses in today’s time are purchasing profession liability insurance or more commonly known as professional indemnity. Professional indemnity helps pay for expenses that occur during malpractice, negligence, and misdiagnosis lawsuits.
The Oxford Shorter English Dictionary defines indemnity as “security or protection against contingent hurt, damage, or loss” (Cornock, 2011, p. 25). Professional indemnity is an agreement between a healthcare provider and an indemnity provider that financial cost will be covered when a malpractice, negligence, or misdiagnosis lawsuit is filed against the healthcare provider. Countless nurses take for granted the benefits of having professional indemnity. Most nurses believe that he or she will not need the protection of professional indemnity until it is too late (Cornock, 2011). In 2008 the average expense by accident year was approximately $45,000 for nurse practitioners insured through CNA Healthpro. These expenses do not include fees for attorneys,
A health care provider must understand many aspects of statutory duty. Duty is “a legal obligation imposed on one to conform to a recognized standard of care to safe guard the rights of others”. The standard of care is usually related to medical malpractice cases. Standard of care is defined as “the caution and prudence that a reasonable person would exercise under the circumstances or by appropriate authority for such situations”. This is mainly of importance because all physicians are expected to perform within the guidelines of this duty, and this standard or care changes depending on the circumstances. “Once the duty has been established, the plaintiff must show that it was breached by presenting evidence of the facts of the case and testimony from expert witnesses regarding whether the standard was met”(Showalter, 2014 p 139). Negligence results in the failure to meet this standard of care, and the jury usually decides if the defendant is guilty of committing a negligent act. Causation is an aspect of negligence. The defendant could be held liable for negligence if the act was considered to be foreseeable, and if the injury occurred from a breach of duty.
The negligence of this incident had a negative impact on the patient’s family members. Approximately 25% of cases involving medical negligence involve poor nursing care. Another negative aspect was patient’s family follow up was poor resulting in lack of importance highlighted on the pressure wounds. Ashley (2003) states nurses can be sued for malpractice, this means he or she is being sued for “negligence”. Furthermore, the nursing health professionals can lose its credibility among a community as they failed to provide a holistic care for the patient. However, a positive outcome was nurses were able to reflect among this evidence based practice to assist in better quality in patient
This application paper provides a summary of Professional Liability for a Paramedic and EMS personnel in general. We forget (omissions) to perform a needed task or skill and we make mistakes or professional errors for whatever reason when performing our duty in the name of doing no harm. The incident (the liable act) may be minor and reversible; on the other hand it might just be hell’s payday with lawsuits and court dates. A professional liability can cause severe injury to a patient, both patient and care provider and might also include a civilian or two in the mix. Professional Liability can lead to
Insurers are less likely to reimburse APRN’s in states that mandate physician supervision. Nurses need to push for reform of the regulations governing APRN;s.
A variety of data will be required to test the theory of effectiveness being employed. Firstly, data will be required regarding incidences where in EMNC could be faced with lawsuits ranging from: patient negligence to a, failure to protect nursing staff and other health care workers from injury. Other data will come from the literature on health care giver standards that have been shown to help avoid lawsuits, (e.g. failure to use equipment in a responsible manner, failure to communicate, failure to document patient care and failure to act as a patient advocate).
There are many defendants in this case. First and foremost Dale, the loss prevention officer for Wal-Mart, is a defendant because he intentionally restrained Bob against his will and the restraint was unlawful. Dale also failed to follow company rules; Dale was supposed to watch a video that explained how to catch and deal with thieves but decided not to watch the video. The second defendant would be Dale’s supervisor. The supervisor recorded a pass on an exam that dale did not take. The exam Dale failed to write was based on the video that Dale did not watch. The third defendant would be Wal-Mart; Wal-Mart assumes liability because they could be at fault for not properly training staff. Bob would want to take action on
Hospitals are no longer being reimbursed for “never” events, which encompass situations a patient may encounter during a hospital stay, such as hospital-acquired infections, pressure ulcers, and falls. It is imperative for the nursing profession to hold knowledge and appreciation of how patient care outcomes influence the organizations monetary bottom-line.
A second issue is malpractice. Malpractice issues are always present in an unstable environment where patients will seek to remedy an incident if they feel they have been harmed (Hamric, 2009). It is important to always act in a reasonable way as a health care clinician but unfortunately there are always those who are negligent in their actions as practitioners.
The face of healthcare has been changing over the last decade. The role of nurse practitioners has become ever more important. This paper conducts a policy analysis as a systematic investigation of alternative policy options, for the emerging nationalized healthcare plan and the increased use of nurse practitioners. It looks at the goals of nationalized healthcare 's use of nurse practitioners and discusses to what extent this policy meets these goals. This paper begins with a detailing of the problem addressed by the policy and the goals and objectives of nationalized
The adult-gerontology acute care nurse practitioner (AGACNP) has many responsibilities. In addition to providing excellent patient care, the AGACNP must also know how to code for patient services, bill appropriately and know how much they should expect in reimbursement for specific treatments. Many legal issues arise for the AGACNP, including several forms of negligence; the AGACNP should be educated on the essential elements. Finally, the AGACNP must educate themselves and be prudent to avoid legal issues related to malpractice. In the following paragraphs, each of these issues will be discussed.
Managed care organizations and their evolving forms are reviewed public policy issues and their implications for nurses are identified, and responses for organized nursing. Prices for medical services, new costly prescription drugs and medical technologies, unhealthy lifestyles, and an outdated fee-for-service system that pays for volume. Indemnity plans is a health insurance plan that reimburses the covered person for medical expenses often include a deductible. Patients can also go to any physician or hospital. Rising health care costs punishes many people for families and seniors. Managed care plans have contracts with health care providers and medical facilities to provide care for members at reduced costs. The cost of medical care means
Many nurses need to take their own professional liability insurance, although insured by the employer. Most of the company policies are created to meet their own needs. (Eisenburg, 2010, p. 25.)
Tzeng and Yin (2008) state that nurses assume the responsibility and are liable when a patient falls in their care. Nurses spend the most time with patients at their bedside; however, nurses don’t have any
An individual can lose a lot when they fall to professional malpractices. It can be their natural physical appearance. It can be their sense of confidence and self-esteem. It can also be their savings or future earnings. With so much at stake, it is promoted that professionals get a professional liability insurance.
Professional nurses encounter a variety of legal ethical and bioethical issues on a daily basis. For this reason, it is essential that all nurses are aware of current state and national legislation, acts and guidelines and the implications of these for nursing practices as well as legal processes, principles of open disclosure and the role of a coroner in the health sector. In this way, nurses can adhere to the overarching guidelines for practice as well as working within the code of conduct, competency standards and scope of practice. This paper will provide an overview of legal and ethical parameters of professional nursing practice.