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Elements of Nursing Malpractice

1. Duty

2. Breach of duty

3. Foreseeability

4. Causation

5. Harm and injury

6. Damages

DoctrinePrinciples that may condemn or free you.

Doctrines of Negligence

1. Res Ipsa Loquitur

- means the things speaks for itself. This means that the injury could have not happened if

someone was not negligent that no further proof is required.

Three conditions to establish negligence

1. That the injury was such nature that it would not normally occur unless there was a negligent act on

the part of someone.

2. That the injury was caused by an agency within control of the defendant

3. The the plaintiff himself did not engage in any manner that would tend to bring about the injury.

Examples:

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A patient came in walking to the outpatient clinic for injection. Upon administering the

injection to his buttocks, the patient experienced extreme pain. His leg left weak and he was

subsequently paralyzed. His sciatic nerve was injured.

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The presence of sponges in the patients abdomen after an operation.

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Fracture on a newly-delivered baby born by breech presentation.

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2. Force Majeure

- means irresistible force, one that unforeseen or inevitable. Under the Civil Code of the

Philippines no person shall be responsible for those events which cannot be foreseen, or which, though

foreseen, are inevitable, except in cases expressly specified by law.

- Circumstances such as flood, fire, earthquakes, and accident, fall under this doctrine and

nurses who fail to render service during these circumstances are not held negligent. However, habitual

tardiness due to heavy traffic is not considered an excuse for force majeure.

3. Respondeat Superior

- means Let the master answer for the acts of the subordinate. Under this doctrine, the

liability is expanded to include the master as well as the employee and not a shift of liability from the

subordinate to the master. Therefore, when a person, through his negligence, injures another, he

remains fully responsible.

- It only applies only to those actions performed by the employee within the scope of his

employment.

Examples:

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The hospital will be held liable, if , in an effort to cut down on expenses it decides to hire

under board nurses or midwives in place of professional nurses, and these persons prove to

be incompetent.

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The surgeon will be held responsible in case a laparotomy pack is left in patients abdomen.