We don't understand why the nurse was liable for 10%. What exactly did she do? Did she give the epi without checking what it should be? Situations like this make me want to be doubly carefull because you can kill people really easily. Or maybe we should just never be ER nurses. Is it more room for error in the ER because it is so crazy sometimes? If that nurse had $6,000,000 of liability insurance like the sites we looked at last week she would be ok. One of our instructors told us that we shouldn't have insurance because people are more likely to sue those with deep pockets than those who have nothing. We don't know what to think. It appears that the majority of nurses think it is a good idea. We think it would be usefull to talk about a few legal cases like that at a more in depth level. It might help us see what things we need to be really careful about.
Meg Goodfellow
Kalia Norcott
Molly London
Sonnie Jones
6 comments:
I think in the ED you're definitely more prone to stress and error due to the emergent situations. Last quarter, it seemed like our instructor made a good point about why not to get personal liability insurance, but after this quarter I think it's more clear as to why nurses should have their own personal liability insurance. The amount of money that these nurses and other health care providers have been sued for is insane! Without liability insurance, these health care providers could lose everything they own to pay off their charges.
Crystal Seto
Robin Rettig
Clint Webster
I think the answer to your question about why the nurse was accountable is what she did not do. We are part of a team that is accountable to each other. In situation where multiple people are focused on one situation a system of checks and balances has to be put into place to ensure (in this case) the safety of the patient. It is unfortunate that we live an era that is flooded with malpractice accusations. Many of these cases would probably be thrown out of court if fought in a courtroom, but many are settled out of court which in turn leads others to follow with similar cases. On the other hand, some of these cases are necessary to protect patients from caregivers who are not qualified or take advantage of the practice of medicine. To protect ourselves me must be diligent in out efforts as a nurse. Stress can be distracting, but most mistkes are made when we get to comfortable and look for short cuts. Most nurses I've spoken to have a routine they follow. When presented with a situation they follow their routine and make sure all their bases are covered. It is through diligence like this that we can protect our license and patients.
tim comment for the group of Tim, Ivan, Joe and Jenny McB
Group 5 sez:
We should also consider the flip side , which is the mechanism of huge settlements, ie. lawsuits. They do have a punitive effect and drive change. IF a hospital of a Doctor where merely fined a few hundred or thousand dollars, we would all treat this like running a stop sign. With lrge fines and loss of licensure there is not just the removal of a few bad apples, but a mechanism to change bad policies and bad processes. Therefore a nurse should be on the lookout fro ways to improve the system and prevent mistakes, accidents, bad policy etc.
This was a very eye opening case, and I can see why you would be questioning which way to go with insurance. I wonder what happens in a case like this when the nurse has no insurance, does she have her wages garnished for the rest of her life. I think I would rather have insurance then not. You all came up with some good questions to consider.
Rachael, Jennifer & Allison
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