What exactly is nursing malpractice, and how does a nurse get entangled in nursing malpractice?
Generally speaking, malpractice may be divided into two major categories: (1) Negligence, when a nurse fails to exercise that degree of nursing care which would be expected from another nurse in a similar clinical situation, and (2) Informed Consent, when a nurse fails to adequately inform a patient about the pertinent risks and benefits of a nursing procedure or treatment prior to its performance. In law, negligence has a special meaning and a much more narrow definition then the general one we often think of, such as neglecting to do a task, job, or procedure correctly. Informed consent litigation, which occurs less frequently than being sued for negligence, presents special issues of its own, including vagueness of your specific role and the resulting consequence of taking on more than you thought.
