Medical Negligence and Nurses: Holding Professionals Accountable
While many people think of doctors and surgeons when it comes to medical negligence, medical malpractice lawsuits can be filed against any members of the medical profession who act (or fail to act) in a manner that endangers patients. This can include pharmacists, radiologists, and even nursing staff. Our team of Utah medical malpractice attorneys would like to consider the nature of nursing malpractice in brief right now.
Defining Nursing Malpractice
In broad terms, nursing malpractice cases involve any action in which the nursing staff of a hospital, surgical center, or clinic cause harm to patients. This can occur in many different ways.
Examples of Nursing Malpractice
Some examples of nursing malpractice include the following:
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Failure to Act/Inform - If a patient is under a nurse's care and suddenly experiences a major medical emergency, the nurse must act quickly to ensure the patient receives the proper care required. A failure to act in a timely manner and/or inform other medical staff to the emergency can literally mean the difference between life and death in some instances.
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Injury of Patients Using Medical Equipment - Nurses must be very careful when using medical equipment of any kind. If they harm a patient with a syringe or other kinds of tools and items in a doctor's office or surgical suite, the nurse can be held liable for the injury.
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Medication Errors - Nurses often provide patients with medication as part of standard care. Improperly administering medication (e.g., failure to provide medicine, improper dosage, wrong medication) are potential grounds for a malpractice lawsuit.
Proving That a Nurse Acted Negligently
In order to prove that a nurse acted negligently, it's important for a medical specialist to analyze the nature of the harm that befell a patient and determine that a nurse was indeed responsible for the harm. By doing this, an injury victim is able to hold the nurse, the hospital, and/or attending doctor accountable the act of negligence that led to the incident occurring.
How Our Lawyers Can Help You and Your Loved Ones
Medical injuries of all kinds can be serious matters and extremely difficult. Our medical malpractice attorneys have years of experience with complicated litigation that involves medical professionals and even major health care centers.
We will use this expertise to help you obtain just compensation for the injuries sustained at the hands of a negligent nurse. This includes the cost of additional medical procedures to remedy the problem, the amount of wages lost due to illness or injury, and the pain and suffering endured as a result of negligent care. In addition, we will seek to reform the standards at the establishment that employed the nurse in order to improve the level of care they provide to patients so that further tragedies do not happen in the future.
Speak with Our Team of Medical Malpractice Attorneys
To learn more about all of your legal options following an incident of negligence by a health care professional, be sure to contact our medical malpractice law firm today. Our lawyers will work with you to ensure that you receive the strong counsel that you need to receive just compensation.