Medical negligence, liability, and malpractice have always dominated many discussions in the modern healthcare profession. In the cases of negligence, when hospitals and doctors plead innocence, the relatives view the negligence being the cause of the patient's damage or death. Medical negligence includes inadequate or absence of reasonable skills and cares during the process of treating a patient, which causes the death of a patient or any other physical harm.
In the case study at Bella Hospital, the nurse act of leaving a sponge inside a precision comprises an act of negligence. The nurse involved in the surgery declined to demonstrate reasonable care and skill during the surgery (Yadav et al., 2017) . An act of medical negligence can be alleged in cases where death has occurred or when a patient affected is still alive. When an act of negligence is reported, substantiation of the charges, the court can compel the hospital facility or the nurse to pay for the damages.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
According to a Law report on negligence in 2015, after the establishment that the therapists failed to reach the required standards of care, the plaintiff needs to demonstrate that the nurse's negligence resulted in a further injury the complainant is complaining of. There should be a relationship between the actions of the defendant and the plaintiff's injuries (Pagura, 2015). This is nursing is causation and is provided by the experts. In the cases where the therapists or the defendant prove that the injury would have occurred regardless of the defendant's actions, the defendant does not carry the liability in such a case. The compensations in such cases are referred to as damages. Special damages refer to compensation for losses that can be calculated or proven. The process of calculating the damages resulting from negligence is calculated for all basis at once. The court calculations incorporate the amounts that have been spent and the amount that is expected to be spent by the defendant in the future.
According to a report by the Nurses Service Organization, the claims of malpractice in the nursing profession have been on the rise in the contemporary world. The study indicated that approximately $90 million was spent on compensating for nursing malpractices over a duration of 5 years (Patricia, 2016). The nurses involved in malpractice include registered nurses, licensed vocational nurses, and licensed practical nurses. The report indicated that nurses who train outside the united states are more likely to be involved in malpractice than those trained in the united states. Malpractice in the nursing profession is not entirely reduced depending on the number of years at work or general experience. According to this study, 85% of the nurses involved in nursing malpractice has been in the nursing profession for more than 16 years (Patricia, 2016). The average costs in claims in 2007 were $151053. The costs rose to $161501 in 2010, reaching $164586 in 2015 (Patricia, 2016). There is a significant difference between male and female nurses with regard to malpractice claims. Female nurses have a lower average paid indemnity at $38570 compared to the male nurses, whose average paid indemnity was $38570. The overall indemnity for the registered nurses was $35702, $78368 for retired nurses (Patricia, 2016). The vocational and licensed practitioner nurses indicated an indemnity average costs of $68125.
The case study also encompasses nursing liability. The legal system has a unique outline of what standard of care nurses give and what health care service seekers are entitled to. Many healthcare systems in the world are embracing evidence-based care. The approach is considered effective in offering the highest quality of patient care.
Managers in the medical profession need to develop strategies to reduce actions of malpractice, negligence, and liability in their respective institutions. During compensation, the medical institutions incur liabilities and costs when the allegations are proved through a court process (Neil, 2015). As a healthcare manager, the case study is an ideal platform that can help to address the problem of negligence in the nursing profession. There is a need to educate nurses on the consequences of negligence and the consequent cost implications.
Acts of negligence incur huge losses for nurse professionals and healthcare organizations. Healthcare managers have a role to play in enhancing communication flow in the healthcare organization to minimize instances of nurse negligence. Some acts of negligence among the nurses result from poor communication. Managers need to intervene in ensuring efficiency in information flow in the organization. As the nurse manager, the supervision process should be carried out comprehensively to ensure that the nurses are compliant with the job regulations and organizational policies (Neil, 2015). Additionally, nurse managers need to ensure that nurses are assigned the right amount of load and realistic shifts. In some instances, cases of negligence result from overload. Managers play a significant role in making work assignments, duties, and responsibilities.
The assisting nurses at Bella Hospital need to be closely supervised, and their activities monitored by an experienced nurse. Assistant nurses possess limited skill and experience in the nursing profession and during the performance of sensitive processes such as surgery. Thye needs to be closely monitored and mentored to ensure minimal acts of negligence at Bella Hospital. The nursing profession is a sensitive profession since it deals with human lives. Availability of legal framework and nurse organization education and training programs helps to reduce the rate of medical negligence. Medical negligence has detrimental impacts on patient health. Sometimes resulting to further injuries or even death. The family of a deceased patient can sue a nurse if they feel the death of the patient was associated with the negligence of the nurse. When such allegations are proved in a court process, individual nurses and nursing organizations become liable to incur a cost in compensating the patient or the patient's family.
References
Yadav, A., Tellewar, S., Swain, R., & Gupta, S. K. (2017). Alleged Medical Negligence Cases: An Autopsy Study. Journal of Punjab Academy of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology , 17 (2), 10-15.
Pagura, I. (2015). Negligence: what you need to know: in the first of a series of articles, we will review the law of negligence, in order to understand the obligations of health professionals. Journal of the Australian Traditional-Medicine Society , 21 (3), 188-191.
Griffith, R. (2019). Negligence and the standard of care in district nursing. British Journal of Community Nursing , 24 (1), 35-37.
Neil, H. P. (2015). Nursing liability and evidence-based practice. MedSurg Nursing , 24 (5), S10-S10.
Patricia L. Harman. (2016). nursing malpractice claims increase.
Neil, H. P. (2015). Nursing liability and evidence-based practice. MedSurg Nursing , 24 (5), S10-S10.
