Nursing home abuse is a tragic sin against the elderly. It is even more tragic when a victim of nursing home abuse or nursing home neglect finds the courage to speak up and there is no one there to help them. Often claims of or nursing home neglect are easy for nursing homes to deny for the simple matter that the elderly are more likely to lose some of their mental capacity.

Nursing home abuse as well as outright medical malpractice often go unreported by staff members the elderly choose to confide in. This is due to the staff member’s fear that the entire nursing home will lose credibility and the innocent employees will find themselves out of a job and facing legal trouble.

Innocent employees in doubt should contact a reputable nursing home abuse lawyer to discuss the situation in complete detail, as the nursing home abuse and malpractice lawyer can advise an innocent employee how to most effectively handle the nursing home abuse, the nursing home neglect, or the medical malpractice occurrences. It takes a great deal of courage for an innocent nursing home employee to seek out the advice of a nursing home abuse lawyer and follow through on their direction.

Nursing home residents are more likely to report nursing home abuse, nursing home neglect, or medical malpractice to an employee they like and trust, and their faith is then placed in that individual to help resolve the situation. Too often the innocent employee is willing to sweep the report under the rug. An employee at a nursing home that is charged with this information becomes equally as culpable as the individual who perpetrated the nursing home abuse, nursing home neglect, or the case of medical malpractice.

Covering up incidents only leads to more incidents of nursing home abuse, nursing home neglect, or medical malpractice. Every incident after the initial incident reported becomes equal responsibility of the staff member who did nothing about the initial report of nursing home abuse, nursing home neglect, or medical malpractice.

If there is a question to the mental capacity of the residents making the report of the nursing home abuse, or medical malpractice, it is still suitable and advisable to seek the council of a competent nursing home abuse lawyer. Whether a resident makes a habit of reporting abuse that doesn’t exist or is expressing a legitimate concern, the nursing home employee is legally obligated to report it.

Nobody wants to make waves or toss our unfounded accusations at good and caring colleagues. However, residents of a nursing home have so little power, and almost no voice. Their need for safety and security outweighs an uncomfortable moment experienced by reporting nursing home abuse, nursing home neglect, or obvious medical malpractice. Source: NursingHomeAbuseLawyer.com

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Elements of a Medical Malpractice

In the last five years, the cases of nursing negligence and malpractices has risen to an alarming rate. This is according to the National Council of State Boards of Nursing. We as nurses should be concerned about this rate because as medical professionals, malpractices in nursing and nurse negligence is very much taken into consideration during our lecture discussions and clinicals back in nursing school. The only difference is that working today as a licensed nurse will not give your clinical instructor half the blame because in the fisrt place, youre on your own already.

Nursing malpractice can be generally defined as negligence on the part of a Nurse which causes physical or emotional damage to a patient or client under their care. This includes failure to do appropriate nursing care at a certain time, surgical assisting mistakes, mistakes in delivering of a child (for nurse midwives), mistakes with medications, or causing any loss or injury by not performing professionally. Nursing malpractice is limited to negligence which occurs in the course of medical or health care, and the basic legal issues involved in medical malpractice are the same as the legal elements in common neglect.

There are 4 elements of Nursing Malpractice:

Standards of Care:
This refers to the norms that experience and history implied as the "right thing to do at the right time". In general, its what a reasonably prudent nurse would do in a similar situation and given the same circumstance. An example would be a nurse giving a patient oxygen therapy via face mask when she noticed the O2 saturation was below normal level and there was a doctor's order for such actions to be done.

Nursing Care Plans help nurses define the most commonly encountered clinical problems and its symptoms, then offer guidelines for performing ongoing assessment and therapeutic interventions. Care Plans assist the nurse in the development, deliverance, and documentation of patient care in order to help nurses adhere to the most current practice and professional standards in nursing.

Some nursing malpractice mistakes might be the following:

* Failure to secure an informed consent from a patient prior to a surgical procedure
* Misuse of a medical equipment
* Medication error
* Documentation error
* Failing to perform necessary procedure

The best defense that a nurse could ever have is the patient's chart. Remember the old nursing cliche that goes like "If you didnt chart it, you didnt do it"? This might well be your life saver from a nursing legal lawyer or attorney. So always remember to chart completely.

Duty:
By accepting the endorsement or referral of a patient from the ER or any other nursing department, the nurse is duty-bound to care for the patient with his or her utmost ability, knowledge and skills. That is pretty well covered in the Good Samaritan law.

Legal Causation:
It is the second major hurdle that must be overcome for a successful malpractice plaintiff. The plaintiff must
establish that had standards of care been follow, the injury or damages to the patient would have been avoided. A legal cause of action for nursing negligence usually exists when it is determined that the breach of the standard of care proximately caused damages, usually physical or emotional in nature to the victim.

And lastly,
Damages:
This is the result of the substantial neglect or malpractice on the part of the nurse. Patient's lawyers and legal consultation attorneys would capitalize on this element so their clients can get a well deserved settlement claim. This includes: death, disability, prolonged pain, deformity, or added cost of hospital stay.

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Nursing Negligence and Nursing Malpractice Blog

This is a blog all about Nursing Negligence from a legal and civilian Standpoint. Being a nurse trying to thrive in a competitive nation like the United States, one can never be so sure about trying to finish a shift without fearing a summon is waiting for tomorrow's duty.

My name is Jake Bongayan, RN and im trying to get my hands dirty on the topics of legal proceedings of nursing home laws, nursing malpractice and negligence, attorneys that might be of help whenever a lawsuit comes up, as well as settlements that might come in handy in the future.

Im on my way to working as a nursing home care nurse in California in the near future. But before this, Ive heard a lot of rumors about nurses having problems with lawsuits against them usually because of nursing negligence and nursing malpractice. This is where this blog is all about.

I want to blog everything on this topic so if youll be working (or are currently working in a nursing home or hospital) in United States, Canada or United Kingdom, you will be more aware of the things that might just save you from legal issues.

I very much welcome you, and your friends to join me in my journey in being more informed nurse and be cautioned of nursing negligence and nurse malpractices.

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