Nursing Staff Legal Resource

Nursing Staff Legal Resource

The state of Illinois has been firm in protecting and promoting life and preventing communicable diseases and illness by regulating the nursing profession through the Nurse Practice Act of 2017 (Illinois General Assembly, 2017). According to the Act, the nursing standards of care explain the expected level of professional nursing practice. These standards outline the minimum care level that a nurse should give patients under similar conditions. On the other hand, the Act defines the scope of practice, which states the exact responsibilities and activities a nurse is lawfully permitted to do within their licensure (Huynh & Haddad, 2022).

Nursing malpractice is the failure to give the minimum care level that another nurse in the same circumstances with the same qualifications would have done that caused injury to the patient. Elements of nursing malpractice include causation, duty, negligence, and damages (Bono & Hipskind, 2019). The causation element questions whether the action or omission caused the poor outcome. This element is established by showing that the nurse’s direct mistake led to a hostile outcome. Secondly, the duty element questions whether the nurse is responsible for the patient’s care (Liang et al., 2023). The breach of duty or negligence element explores if a nurse fails to provide care to the required minimum level of standards of care, which leads to patient harm (Paterick & Timothy, 2022). Lastly, the damages element tries to question if the alleged malpractice act caused damages or harm suffered by the patient, which can be emotional, physical, or financial harm (Bono & Hipskind, 2019).

Nurses are at risk of being sued for malpractice while practicing; hence, they must be familiar with some legal compliance practices. To avoid lawsuits, nurses should consider protocols, nursing skills, patient care, documentation, and communication (Bono & Hipskind, 2019). First, nurses should regularly update their skills and knowledge according to the most recent evidence-based practices and guidelines. Also, nurses should always have honest and open communication with their patients and families and should document all communications truthfully (Bunting & de Klerk, 2022). Nurses should always follow protocols and guidelines from approved professionals in the field. Lastly, Bono and Hipskind (2019) add that even though it may be hard, a nurse should always try to treat the patient as a family.

Reminder Resource

Scope of Practice- The expected level of professional nursing care.

Elements of Malpractice

Omission of action caused poor outcome (causation)

Nurse’s responsibility for care (duty)

Nurse fails to provide the minimum required level of care (negligence)

A nurse causing harm or injury to the patient (damages)

Best Practices for Legal Compliance

Update nursing skills and knowledge according to the new guidelines.

Have honest and open communications with patients.

Follow guidelines and protocols from approved professional fields.

References

Bono, M. J., & Hipskind, J. E. (2019, January 19). Medical Malpractice. Nih.gov; StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470573/

Bunting, J., & de Klerk, M. (2022). Strategies to Improve Compliance with Clinical Nursing Documentation Guidelines in the Acute Hospital Setting: A Systematic Review and Analysis. SAGE Open Nursing, 8(1), 237796082210751. https://doi.org/10.1177/23779608221075165

Huynh, A. P., & Haddad, L. M. (2022). Nursing Practice Act. PubMed; StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK559012/

Illinois General Assembly. (2017). 225 ILCS 65/ Nurse Practice Act. Www.ilga.gov. https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs5.asp?ActID=1312&ChapterID=24#:~:text=(a)%20For%20the%20protection%20of

Liang, B. A., Maroulis, J., & Mackey, T. K. (2023). Understanding Medical Malpractice Lawsuits. Stroke, 54(3). https://doi.org/10.1161/strokeaha.122.038559

Patrick & Timothy E. (2022).Medical Malpractice: An Introduction to Tort Law – ProQuest. Www.proquest.com. https://www.proquest.com/openview/112aa99c9ccbc019da5d9a6de3f0a56c/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=32264

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

We’ll write everything from scratch

---

Assignment Content

Competency
Analyze legal components related to nursing practice.

Student Success Criteria
View the grading rubric for this deliverable by selecting the “This item is graded with a rubric” link, which is located in the Details & Information pane.

Scenario
Your nurse manager has asked you to identify some key points from best practices in guarding against malpractice and to develop a small reminder resource for the staff nurses. The resource could be designed to be attached to the back of a name badge or put into a small notebook that reminds them of the key steps for best practice and the standards of care for legal responsibility and malpractice.

Instructions
Create a legal resource for nursing staff that:

Examines the definition of standards of care and scope of practice within your state.
Determines the essential elements of nursing malpractice.
Appraises best practices for legal compliance.
Provides stated ideas with professional language and attribution for credible sources with correct APA citation, spelling, and grammar in the legal resource.