The selected article presents two cases that focus on nursing malpractice and the issue of liability. In the first scenario, several primary problems led to the suits. The first one was that nurse Lunsford failed to act by the provisions of the state’s nursing code of conduct. The issue of a breach of duty is also evident since the nurse practitioner (NP) did not provide appropriate services to Mr. Floyd (Croke, 2006).
Other issues include causation and foreseeability (the ability to predict potential health complications). These primary concerns eventually resulted in patient injury. In the second case, Ms. Muskopf was operated on on the wrong hand. The outstanding problems leading to this malpractice suit included a breach of duty, failure to focus on elements surrounding patient-nurse relationships, and foreseeability. The nurse also breached the outlined standards of care by failing to present the patient’s opinion or expectation regarding the surgical site.
From these two cases, it is evident that the nurses played significant roles amounting to negligence. The practitioners were expected to act by the existing standards of care. The first case reveals that the nurse failed to assess the patient’s cardiac condition and inform the physician.
This was wrong since there was a need to pursue the most appropriate nursing actions (Croke, 2006). In the second scenario, the nurse had a short conversation with the patient who indicated that the scheduled surgery was to be done on the left hand. With this kind of knowledge, the practitioner failed to update the physician accordingly. This resulted in a negligence or malpractice lawsuit. The nurse’s mistake was that of omission.
References
Croke, E. M. (2006). Nursing malpractice: Determining liability elements for negligent acts. Journal of Legal Nurse Consulting, 17(3), 3-7.