Nursing Malpractice: Why It Is So Common In Medical Malpractice

A nurse is the frontline defense and in the trenches.  Patients come to hospitals for treatment and are seen first by a nurse who triages them.  Other nurses help stabilize a patient and prepare a patient for the doctor.  Nurses can help get vitals and collect the initial data needed for the doctor’s evaluation.  Nurses are very important in this regard.

This is why nurses need to get it right.  Because when nurses get it wrong, the doctor starts with the wrong information.  The patient is triaged improperly.  The doctor does not have the right vitals.  Patients are not properly prepped for the doctor.  And other issues arise.

This is why medical malpractice cases frequently involve nurses.  They almost always have a major part in the patient’s care, and always will have some involvement in the treatment of the patient.  Nursing mistakes are responsible for a lot of medical malpractice cases.

Indeed, a major part of medical malpractice is also due to miscommunication.  The most frequent place for miscommunication is between nurses and doctors, or nurses and other nurses—especially at the end of a shift.  Communication is so important in all aspects of any career, especially medicine.

Nurses also get sued a lot because they handle almost all of the types of cases that a physician works on.  Surgeries, emergency room, even little procedures, evaluations, and other diagnostics all involve nurses who assist and help care for the patient.  Nurses are used in almost every facet of medicine.