negligence vs. malpractice??

what is the difference? I cant really fing any good examples.
negligence is the omission of an action, resulting in an undesirable outcome.malpractice is a direct action that creates an undesirable outcome.leslie

Negligence is a failure to act as a reasonably prudent person would act under similar circumstances. There are 4 elements of negligence that must be proved in order for there to be a viable medical malpractice claim.1. A duty must be owed to the person. In a medical case, this duty occurs when the health care provider accepts responsibility for the care and treatment of that patient.2. A breach of duty or standard of care occurred. The standard of care for that type of specialty and that particular type of treatment must be determined to see if there has been an act of omission or commission that has caused damage to the patient.3. Proximate cause - An act or omission can be shown to be a substantial factor in bringing about or failing to prevent an injury or loss. 4. Damages or injuries occur.

Quote from tnbutterflyNegligence is a failure to act as a reasonably prudent person would act under similar circumstances. There are 4 elements of negligence that must be proved in order for there to be a viable medical malpractice claim.1. A duty must be owed to the person. In a medical case, this duty occurs when the health care provider accepts responsibility for the care and treatment of that patient.2. A breach of duty or standard of care occurred. The standard of care for that type of specialty and that particular type of treatment must be determined to see if there has been an act of omission or commission that has caused damage to the patient.3. Proximate cause - An act or omission can be shown to be a substantial factor in bringing about or failing to prevent an injury or loss. 4. Damages or injuries occur.

To me, this has always been a clear cut distinction that requires one to remember one simple fact:A healthcare professional...be them a physician, nurse, etc. is NOT God.To me, if a physician makes a mistake, especially one where a split-second decision needed to be made and there was no time to consult someone...if it takes an entire team of physicans to review the file for weeks or months to figure out whether or not it was a mistake...then that is more time than that physician had.To me, negligence is where they HAD the knowledge or severely deviated from known procedure or protocols without a good medical reason to do so....and really messed someone up.

Quote from Hopefull2009A healthcare professional...be them a physician, nurse, etc. is NOT God.

Malpractice is a manifestation of negligence in one's professional (licensed) capacity. It is measured by a lack of adherence to standards of practice resulting in damages.

Negligence is failure to act/ report......an example is your pt's blood pressure keeps dropping from 130/ 70 to now 76/42 as the pt keeps vomiting. You decide to wait an hour to contact the MD and then there is little time to intervene before cardiac or respiratory collapse. That is pure negligence and total deviation from what a prudent nurse would do.Malpractice - an example would be applying a cooling blanket or heating pad directly to the skin with no barrier and then the patient ends up with blisters that further breaks down into a bedsore. Your actions resulted in injury.

thank you for posting this. i was having trouble differentiating these two terms.am i correct in thinking that malpractice is under negligence? because as stated here, malpractice is professional negligence.

[font="tahoma"]Quote from anakat_evangelistathank you for posting this. i was having trouble differentiating these two terms.am i correct in thinking that malpractice is under negligence? because as stated here, malpractice is professional negligence.

Neglience committed by a professional is malpractice, but not all malpratice is negligence.

thanks yallllthis is really helpful and more examples will be the best to havethanks again

Malpractice: A form of negligence in which the professional who is bound by duty to act, fails to do so under accepted professional standards, resulting in injury or death to the client or patient under his/her care.Negligence: Failure to act with due professional care, which may cause injury, harm or loss.Funny I come across this thread the day after I was putting together lists of legal definitions.And THANK YOU BUTTERFLY! That is excellent!