Nursing medical malpractice - The elephant in everyone’s room

International Conference on Nursing & Emergency Medicine

December 02-04, 2013 Hampton Inn Tropicana, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Sandra Bogenrief

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Nurs Care

Abstract :

Nurses, today, are expected to monitor increasingly critically ill patients with more sophisticated monitoring equipment, and often for longer hours per shift. With shorter hospital stays and the advancement of same-day surgery practice, the home health nurse is also providing care for a more vulnerable and complex patient population. While the nursing profession is growing to become more and more specialized in technical and specialty skills, and with pending shortfalls of nursing volume, we are often being asked to practice in areas in which they are less skilled or experienced. Couple this with a population that is increasingly seeking ways to compensate their losses through litigation; there exists an increased vulnerability for the nurse to become involved in a lawsuit either as a defendant or a fact witness. Do we quit nursing? Heavens No! There is no greater profession then nursing posed to helping mankind. We strategize ?Back to the Basics?. We balance providing quality patient care, effective employee conduct, staying current with our education, and understand malpractice litigation. We protect ourselves and our employer while remaining an advocate for our patients. Although statistics can be unsettling, most nurses never see an attorney and most malpractice cases rule in favor of the defense. We will explore medical malpractice and the nurse.

Biography :

Sandra Bogenrief, RN, BSN, LNC holds an LNC position at Lommen Abdo Law Firm in Minneapolis, Minnesota and has been a Legal Nurse Consultant since 2004. She has thirty years of nursing experience in level-one trauma center in trauma, neuro, surgical as well as in the OR, ICU, and Emergency Room and afforded her skills to evaluate claims for legal merit. Currently, she is pursuing a master?s degree in Nursing Leadership and MBA Administration program at Grand Canyon University in Arizona. She has served 5 years on the board of Minneapolis Association of Legal Nurse Consultants Minnesota Branch of AALNC. She was a speaker at the AALNC National Convention addressing the topic of ?Surviving Sepsis?.