What is the most common source of malpractice for nurses?

14 Questions | Total Attempts: 15621

• Which of the following is NOT an intentional tort?

  • Taking a pt's pain medication

• Assault is threatening to cause bodily harm vs. battery is the actual touch that causes physical harm.  

• What is the most common source of malpractice for nurses?

• Libel is a form of written defamation, while slander is verbal.

• A nurse stating that she loves working in long-term care because she likes the elderly population is an example of:

• Nursing ethics is defined by:

  • Moral principles and values

• Laws refer to statutes or written rules of conduct, vs. ethics refers to "right and wrong" or what nurses "ought" to do.

• A nurse was sued for failing to perform a standard of care during her pt assignment. This is an example of?

  • Negligence based on a breach of duty

• An example of negligence is?

  • Touching a pt without consent

  • Leaving an unstable pt unattended in the bathroom

  • Speaking badly of a pt in the cafeteria

• The good samaritan act covers:

  • Residents of long-term care facilities

  • Passerby in car accidents

  • Protection from civil liability when emergency care is provided in good faith

  • Nurses who choose not to provide care in an emergency

• The state's Nurse Practice Act (NPA) 

  • Carries out disciplinary action for nursing violations

  • Allows student nurses to practice on patients

  • Determines if a nurse can carry a gun while at work

  • Is the final authority (law) on what a nurse is legally obligated to do 

• The Nurse Practice Acts are examples of:

• Standards of care are defined as:

  • How the patient prefers to be taken care of

  • What an ordinary, prudent nurse with similar education and nursing experience would do in similar circumstances

  • The hospital's policy and procedures

  • The expectations of the medical director

• Breastfeeding
• Maternity
• Child Health
• NCLEX

Nurses play a vital role in ensuring a patient is healthy, so there is little room for mistakes.

Generally, when we think of medical malpractice, we think of a doctor or surgeon that made a mistake during a procedure. However, any medical professional has the potential to act negligently, including the nurses. Nurses often get overlooked in malpractice cases, but they play a vital role in ensuring that a patient is healthy. Here are four common examples of nursing malpractice.

Failure to Monitor

One of a nurse’s main jobs is to monitor their patient, keeping track of their condition and vitals throughout the duration of their stay. Even the smallest changes in conditions need to be reported on paper and to the physician that is responsible for that patient. These changes are crucial because they can affect things like medication dosages. If a nurse fails to properly monitor their patient and it leads to injuries or worsened conditions, they can be held accountable for nursing malpractice.

Medication Errors

Another important task that nurses take on is administering medication to patients. This job is extremely important because even the smallest mistake in medication doses can be detrimental to a patient’s health. Not only is there the possibility of a dosage error, but there is also the chance that the patient is given the wrong medication entirely. Nursing malpractice occurs when these medication errors lead to injury. If the nurse doesn’t verify medication allergies, they can also be held responsible if they administer a medication that the patient is allergic to.

Routine Procedures

You often see nurses going in and out of hospital rooms to take a patient’s vitals, start their IV’s, put catheters in, or draw blood for tests and upcoming procedures. These are routine procedures that nurses perform multiple times a day, but that doesn’t mean an error can’t occur. Because they do these procedures so often, nurses may make a careless mistake because they aren’t even fully paying attention, leading to nursing malpractice.

Documentation Errors

While a nurse performs all of these tasks, they must record everything as well. While they are monitoring a patient or performing routine procedures, they must be precise in documenting details of the patient’s condition, including their vitals, medications, dosages, etc. If they fail to document these details or document them incorrectly, it can lead to further medical mistakes and potentially be detrimental to a patient.

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