Nichole Ziegler
University of Phoenix
Health Law and Ethics
HCS/478
Mary Burke
August 12, 2012
Negligence Paper
"Nursing’s role in providing patient care has expanded in response to increasing patient acuity, technology, evidence-based practice, managed care, and the advancement of the profession. Because of this professional evolution, nurses are in a position of higher accountability" (McConnell & Vaughn, 2010, p. 1). Negligence can be considered as "carelessness, a deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would use in a particular set of circumstances. Negligence may also include doing something that the reasonable and prudent person would not do."(Guido, 2010, p. 92). There are some common examples like never turning on an apena monitor, malnutrition, or physical injury as a result of poor nursing care or lack of care at all. ). The Neighborhood Hospital, was deemed to be negligent as a result of amputating the wrong limb from a patient. This article will determine if this is malpractice vs. negligence, and whether the details regarding the case present as negligence or if it can become a malpractice case.
When it comes to negligence there are five items that need to meet to prove that it is a valid negligence case: "1. Duty owed the patient 2. Breach of the duty owed the patient 3. Forseeability 4.Causation 5.Injury 6. Damages" (Guido, 2010, p. 94). There are couple different types of negligence, you can have regular negligence which could be when an individual 's care falls below the standard of care. Then there is gross negligence which is the more serious of the two, and goes beyond just being carelessness. Gross negligence is defined as when an individual deliberately acts in a way that they know would or could cause harm to another individual. An example would be keeping a child in their crib, without changing their diapers or caring for them. This would cause the child to have breakdown of their skin,
References: American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. (2012). Joint Commission (JC) Guidelines: Guidelines for implementation of the universal protocol for the prevention of wrong site, wrong procedure and wrong person surgery. Retrieved August 12, 2012, from http://www3.aaos.org/member/safety/guidelines.cfm Guido, G. E. (2010). Legal & ethicals issues in nursing (5th ed.). Upper Saddle, NJ: Prentice Hall. Judson, K., & Harrison, C. (2010). Law & ethics for medical careers (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. McConnell, T., & Vaughn, S. (2010). Standards for nurse expert witnesses: A recommendation. Journal of Legal Nurse Consulting, 21(2), 3-7. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=45572016-e3f8-463a-8c05-1543e739eab0%40sessionmgr104&vid=2&hid=105 Pearson Health Science. (2012). Amputation mishap, negligence cited. Retrieved from http://frameset.next.ecollege.com/%28NEXT%28485cc4273e%29%29/Main/AllMode/FramesetHybrid/NavigateView.ed?courseItemType=CourseContentItem&subItemID=74083583&expandUnit=14024798