ED Nursing Archives – July 1, 2009
July 1, 2009
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This special issue of ED Nursing addresses your biggest liability risks
This issue of ED Nursing is a special issue on liability risks of emergency nurses. -
Why time-dependent treatments increase your risk of being sued
If a stroke patient arrives within four and one-half hours of symptom onset, this means two things. One, your patient could be saved from a devastating disability if he or she is a candidate for treatment with thrombolytics. -
A suit was prevented with this documentation
A patient presented to an ED with a foreign body in her foot, but the ED physician didn't find anything even after doing an X-ray and exploring the wound. The next day, the radiologist read the X-ray and saw a foreign body. -
Abnormal vital signs present major risks
In January 2009, an emergency nurse and the nurse's hospital were found negligent for not making appropriate reassessments and failing to detect a worsening condition in a patient with a femoral arterial blockage. A $2.4 million verdict was returned. -
Never make these drug errors: They're indefensible
Which medication mistakes are the most indefensible? "Those which are ordinarily avoidable, and simply the result of poor attentiveness on the part of the nurse," says Ann Robinson, MSN, RN, CEN, LNC, principal of Robinson Consulting, a Cambridge, MD-based legal nurse consulting company. -
3 big procedural errors that could get you sued
An injured nerve upon placement of an intravenous (IV) line, usually the radial nerve on the patient's dorsal wrist. A retained foreign body during IV removal, or fractured IV catheter upon removal. A misplaced Foley catheter, usually inflated in the ureter instead of the bladder. -
When can a patient sue an emergency nurse?
There is no question about it: ED nurses are more likely to be sued now than a decade ago. -
Communication can reduce risks in a crowded ED
There is no question that ED overcrowding increases legal risks. "In a busy ED, communication is key to avoiding a lawsuit," says Debra A. Gray, RN, MSN, LNC, principal of Gray's Analysis, a Beaverton, OR, legal nurse consulting company.