Clinical IssuesMalpractice and the Neonatal Intensive‐Care Nurse
Section snippets
The Standard of Care
Regardless of geographical location, the same standard of care is expected to be applied by all neonatal nurses. Neonatal nursing is a specialty of maternal-child nursing, and the neonatal nurse must be cognizant of the professional practice standards for that specialty. A Louisiana court (King v. Department of Health, 1999) stated:
A nurse who practices her profession in a particular specialty owes to her patients the duty of possessing the degree of knowledge or skill ordinarily possessed by
Scope of Practice
The concern related to scope of practice is whether the nurse is legally performing within or outside the scope of a nursing license to practice. In the arena of high-risk neonatal nursing, which is a subspecialty area of maternal-child nursing, components of medical and nursing practice have been blended and the boundaries between them may become blurred. High-risk neonatal nurses commonly intubate infants, insert central intravenous catheters, and lead resuscitation teams, often ordering
Components of Neonatal Nursing Malpractice
The term malpractice means that the nurse's conduct failed to meet the appropriate standard of care (the care that a reasonable and prudent nurse would provide) and this conduct resulted in damages to the patient (Gic, 2001). Not all transgressions are automatically considered to be malpractice, however. The practice of nursing does not guarantee perfect outcomes, nor is a nurse expected to be responsible for unexpected occurrences during the course of care unless those outcomes can be
Discussion
Today's professional neonatal nurse is held accountable for his or her actions and therefore can be identified as a defendant in a malpractice suit. When a neonatal outcome is not what was expected, parents frequently look for someone to blame for a course of events. When a baby is injured, the cost of liability is high, due to the infant's long life expectancy, the long statute of limitations for injuries to children, and sympathy toward the family. Parents and families experience a great deal
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Implementing smart pump technology in a pediatric intensive care unit: A cost-effective approach
2014, International Journal of Medical InformaticsCitation Excerpt :In general, the incidence of preventable adverse events, considered as medication errors, is high and the severity of these is greater than in non-preventable adverse events [4]. Errors that occur in the administration phase are the hardest to intercept [2], and their impact depends on the route of administration, type of drug and patient characteristics [5–9]. Therefore, ensuring the safe handling of high-risk drugs and those with a narrow therapeutic window that are administered intravenously to critically ill pediatric patients should be a priority in our healthcare setting.
Talk to me: Clear communication is the best protection
2010, Newborn and Infant Nursing ReviewsPerinatal litigation and related nursing issues
2005, Clinics in PerinatologyMaternal-Pediatric Pharmacy Unit. Pharmacy Department of the Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón
2016, Revista Espanola de PediatriaImpact of implementing smart infusion pumps in a pediatric intensive care unit
2013, American Journal of Health-System PharmacyClassifying nursing errors in clinical management within an Australian hospital
2010, International Nursing Review