Understanding Nurse Liability report

6 I receive these very interesting updates periodically and thought they might be of good general interest, to contribute to the recurrent "losing my license!!" and "should I have malpractice insurance?" threads.

http://www.nso.com/nurseclaimreport2011

"The report offers nurses...greater insight into malpractice claims as well as licensing board actions brought against their colleagues and facilities. ... Surveys were conducted using practitioners having experienced a professional liability claim along with those who did not to compare factors which may have contributed to increased exposure.

Understanding Nurse Liability, 2006-2010: A Three-Part Approach (Full Report)
Understanding Nurse Liability, 2006-2010: A Three-Part Approach (Summary)
This three-part report covers professional liability claims, licensing protection claims and selected samples from the NSO 2011 Qualitative Nurse Work Profile Survey.
Highlights of the report include:

• Professional Liability Claims: Over $83 million was paid in indemnity (judgments and settlements) and expenses on behalf of nurses during the study period, realizing an average total incurred of $204,594 per claim.
• License Protection Claims: Fifty-seven percent of RNs who experienced a license defense paid claim worked in a hospital while 56% of LPN/LVNs worked in an aging services setting.
• Nurse Work Profile Survey: The number of claims significantly increased, the longer respondents worked as nurses. The highest percentage involved respondents who had worked more than 21 years as a nurse."

Very thought-provoking article. Thank you..

Thank you for sharing very interesting.

Thank you for sharing this important piece of information.

Most employers carry malpractice on their nurses...you may want to check into it with them. If not you can get a policy for fairly cheap.

I remember being told once that simply having malpractice insurance, makes you vulnerable as a deep pocket. It's still my precluding fear.

Not true at all. First, the hospital or practices malpractice must pony up the money for a claim. It is only if it goes over a certain amt (Usually set by the state) that your malpractice would kick in. This is YOUR protection - your employer is NOT going to go to the BON with you if you have a complaint, they are not into protecting YOU once the malpractice claim is settled. If any money is paid on your behalf, the BON gets a notification and your license is then subject to discipline. Your employers malpractice insurance stops once their portion of the suit is settled. They are not going to give a hoot what the BON does or does not do to your license.

Quote from JacktasticI remember being told once that simply having malpractice insurance, makes you vulnerable as a deep pocket. It's still my precluding fear.

Quote from shamrokksMost employers carry malpractice on their nurses...you may want to check into it with them. If not you can get a policy for fairly cheap.

i can't actually recall now, what the charge against me was, negligent homicide is probably wrong, but, it was something that sounded very dreadful.

Quote from Jean Marie46514i can't actually recall now, what the charge against me was, negligent homicide is probably wrong, but, it was something that sounded very dreadful.

Quote from shamrokksThat's such an awful charge. I'm so glad that it worked out in your favor. It is so scary to think of the legal aspect of healthcare from a nurses point of view.

Our lawyer told us of a case, where he had defended some very tiny nurse, who was being sued,cuz her patient, who was in police custody, but not handcuffed to the bed for some reason,jumped up, escaped the ER, and ran outside, and knocked out someone to steal their car to get away. <---this car owner is the one sueing the nurse.i know, i know, what was the tiny nurse supposed to do to stop this guy? sue the police maybe, but, sue the NURSE? what?oh, he had all kinds of crazy stories of various cases....