Question

What are the 3 top legal liabilities for nurses in leadership roles?

Answer 1

Ans) Legal liabilities for nurses in leadership roles:

- Delegating, or assigning tasks to unlicensed and lesser-trained personnel. Nurses have been delegating more responsibilities in recent years, at hospital and insurance company requests, in order to keep patient costs at a minimum. The nurse's duty of care will be breached if the standard of care performed by the other staff member is not up to par.
- Discharging, or releasing a patient sooner than the traditional standard hospital stay. Also due to cost concerns, patients are sometimes discharged while still requiring care. Lack of follow-up and referrals can lead to a breach of the nurse's duty of care.
- Assessing, or evaluating a patient's medical history and current condition. Also due to time constraints and cost concerns, nurses sometimes do not spend sufficient time during this stage or consider certain medical tests. Similarly, nurses must be diligent in continuing to monitor patients.
- Documenting, or failing to adequately record all interactions with the patient and communicate all patient needs with other staff members. When a nurse fails to document, or inadequately documents, negligent behavior can occur such as treatments being repeated or the patient being overmedicated. Additionally, know that in court, undocumented care is assumed to have not occurred.