Liability Paper
Knowing what Nursing Liabilities and Negligence’s are
And Preventing them from Occurring
Sandy E. Preza
HSM-320–10364
Dr. Wojtecki
09/29/2012
To be able to understand and know what a words definition is describing we must know in nursing, the nursing standard that follows clinical words. In defining Liability one can say it means to be responsible of one’s action when committing to patient care. Nursing Liability standards puts every nurse to be an advocate of each patient they encounter. The American Nurse Association has their description of Professional Liability for nurses and they acknowledge that nurses must promote a safe environment, protect a patient’s health, and must be responsible for the delegation of patient needs to another nurse or unlicensed personnel, to be able to reduce any potential Liability. On the other hand Negligence is defined by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare or JCAHO as a, “failure to use such care as a reasonably prudent and careful person would use under similar circumstances”, (Croke, 2003) 54. There are also six categories within Negligence that lead to a Malpractice Lawsuit. These categories can help nurses identify any weak areas they may need to work on to prevent a lawsuit or court case, but if a nurse is served with a complaint then it is important for them to also know how to handle the upcoming lawsuit professionally. In Liability we have to make sure the nurse has the right perception and knowledge so there are no surprises later. What makes a nurse so Liable for each patient is that their roles within the scopes of practice for nursing has increased over the years causing them to encompass a wider role in Healthcare compared to the physicians themselves. The physician used to do most of the tasks for their patients a long time ago, but then realized that the nurse was the real advocate because they had to assist the patients for long periods of time, and hence the physicians gave nurses a
And Preventing them from Occurring
Sandy E. Preza
HSM-320–10364
Dr. Wojtecki
09/29/2012
To be able to understand and know what a words definition is describing we must know in nursing, the nursing standard that follows clinical words. In defining Liability one can say it means to be responsible of one’s action when committing to patient care. Nursing Liability standards puts every nurse to be an advocate of each patient they encounter. The American Nurse Association has their description of Professional Liability for nurses and they acknowledge that nurses must promote a safe environment, protect a patient’s health, and must be responsible for the delegation of patient needs to another nurse or unlicensed personnel, to be able to reduce any potential Liability. On the other hand Negligence is defined by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare or JCAHO as a, “failure to use such care as a reasonably prudent and careful person would use under similar circumstances”, (Croke, 2003) 54. There are also six categories within Negligence that lead to a Malpractice Lawsuit. These categories can help nurses identify any weak areas they may need to work on to prevent a lawsuit or court case, but if a nurse is served with a complaint then it is important for them to also know how to handle the upcoming lawsuit professionally. In Liability we have to make sure the nurse has the right perception and knowledge so there are no surprises later. What makes a nurse so Liable for each patient is that their roles within the scopes of practice for nursing has increased over the years causing them to encompass a wider role in Healthcare compared to the physicians themselves. The physician used to do most of the tasks for their patients a long time ago, but then realized that the nurse was the real advocate because they had to assist the patients for long periods of time, and hence the physicians gave nurses a
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