It’s frightening to be named in a malpractice lawsuit, or even simply to be asked to provide a deposition in a case in which you personally have not been charged. When things go wrong at work, the possibility of legal action adds to the upset a nurse may already feel about a patient’s injury or death.

A primer on the basics of malpractice.

In “The Elements of a Nursing Malpractice Case: Duty” in this month’s AJN, nurse and attorney Edie Brous provides readers with the first of a four-part “primer” that delves into the basics of malpractice.

What exactly is duty to a patient?

In every malpractice case, the plaintiff is required to prove four “elements” in order to win:

  • that the nurse or physician named in the suit had a duty to the patient;
  • that this duty was breached (that is, not fulfilled);
  • that the patient was actually harmed in some way;
  • and that the breach of duty was the direct cause of harm to the patient.

This month’s article addresses the first of the four above elements, duty.

Are you familiar with the concept of respondeat superior or the duty of reasonable care or exactly what, legally, constitutes a nurse–patient relationship? And what is your duty to a patient if you are the on-call supervisor? Brous discusses all of these, and uses actual cases to illustrate how they factor into malpractice cases.

The article will be free until February 7.