Nursing Laws & Torts EXPLAINED (Negligence, Malpractice & More!) | NCLEX® Review

In this video, we're walking through the legal responsibilities that you need to know as a nurse. We're going to cover torts, negligence, malpractice and all the key NCLEX points and the key critical thinking points that you absolutely have got to know for your nursing school exams and to protect yourself, of course, in practice as well. Let's dive in. Now the most important thing to remember here is that as a nurse, your primary first focus is providing safe and effective care to your patients. But you also need to understand the legal framework that really governs your nursing practice. So this knowledge protects your patients rights and their safety and it shields you from any potential legal trouble. So this is definitely something that you're going to want to pay attention to. Now, let's start with the foundation. And this is 20 torts. So what are torts exactly? A tort is a wrongful act that causes harm or infringes upon someone's rights, leading to civil liability. So think of it as a civil wrong as opposed to a criminal one. This is a key nclex point for you to know. Torts are civil wrongs, not criminal wrongs. And here's a memory trick to help you remember this. I like this one. Think to tort, it kind of sounds like tort. T o r T e like a cake. And civil cases are about money damages, not jail time. So think of paying for someone's birthday cake when you mess up. Now torts in nursing can be broken down into really three main categories here. And I have another memory trick to help you out with this so you can think IQ you. Intentional, quasi intentional and unintentional. Now let's walk through each one of these.

Now these laws and torts are all must know things for your exams. So I put them all in a.

Handy cheat sheet for you to download.

So you don't forget any of them. Just comment the word law and I'll send it right over to you.

The first is intentional torts. Intentional torts, these are acts committed with intent to harm. And the big ones you need to know for the nclex are things like assault, assault, battery or false imprisonment. Assault is threatening a patient, making the patient feel apprehensive about an imminent harmful or offensive contact. So for example, telling a patient, I'm going to give you this injection whether you like it or not.

That is assault.

That's not good. You're threatening the patient and then battery. This is the actual act of unwanted physical contact. So if you actually give that injection after the patient refused it that's battery. You've made unwanted physical contact with that patient. And here's your key NCLEX point. Assault is the threat, battery is the actual touch. So think assault comes first alphabetically. And threats come before touches. Now, false imprisonment is unlawfully restraining a patient or restricting their freedom of movement. So this would be using restraints on a competent person who simply wants to leave the facility. That's false imprisonment. And then quasi intentional torts. This is our next category. These are acts that may not be intended to cause harm, but they're wrongful and they do result in injury. Now, the two big ones here are invasion of privacy and defamation of character. Invasion of privacy involves violating a person's right to be left alone. And the biggest example in healthcare here is a breach of confidentiality. Things like discussing a patient's medical information with an unauthorized person. Now, this is really where HIPAA comes in. And this is a huge nclex point for you. HIPAA protects the patient's privacy and their confidentiality.

I have a whole other video on.

HIPAA if you need a review on that. Now, defamation of character is publishing a false statement that harms a person's reputation, be called either slander or libel. And here's a memory trick. If the statement is spoken, it's called slander. So think S for spoken and slander. If it's written, it's libel. Think L for libel and literature which is written, then we have unintentional torts. These are the most common in health care, and they can occur when harm is caused accidentally, unintentionally. The big ones here are negligence and malpractice. Negligence is the failure to act as a reasonably prudent person would have under similar circumstances. And then malpractice is a specific type of negligence that applies to professionals. It's often called professional negligence. So while negligence and malpractice are often used interchangeably, they do have special specific meanings. So negligence is the more broad term for conduct that falls below the established standard of care. And then malpractice is negligence committed by a professional, like a nurse in their official capacity. Let's walk through the five elements of negligence and malpractice. Now, this is super important, and this is definitely going to show up on your nursing exams and possibly the nclex to prove negligence or malpractice in a court of law, there's five key elements that have to be established. So let's walk through each one of these so you know them for your exam.

Now, don't worry. All of these are inside my free cheat sheet that I have for you. Just comment below the word law and I'll send it over to you.

There's a duty to provide care. So there's a professional relationship that's between the nurse and the patient and establishing that the nurse had a duty to provide care according to a certain, certain standard. So here's an analogy for this one to help you remember this. Think of this as the rules of the road. When you get a driver's license, right, you accept that duty to follow traffic laws legally. So in the same way, when you become a nurse, you accept the duty to provide competent care to your patients. And then there's a breach of duty. So the nurse failed to provide the that established standard of care to the patient. Now this means that they didn't act as a reasonably prudent or competent nurse would have in the same situation. And then number three is foreseeability of harm. It needs to be clear that a nurse should have known that their failure to meet that standard of care could result in harm to the patient. And then number four is causation. There's got to be a direct link between the nurses fail, failure to provide that care and the patient's harm or injury. Now that breach was the proximate cause of the harm, so there has to be a causation between the two. And then number five is the harm that occurred. The patient must actually have suffered an actual injury, damage or harm. So without harm, there is no case for negligence. And here's your key nclex point here. All five of these elements have to be present. So, so even if one is missing, there's really no case for negligence or that malpractice. Now let's talk about the standard of care, because this is the cornerstone of safe and legal nursing practice. The standard of care is the benchmark for what a reasonable and prudent nurse would do in a similar situation. So failing to meet the standard of care is the primary cause of malpractice lawsuits. So here's your big critical thinking point for this one. The standard of care is based on what a reasonable and prudent nurse would do in the same situation. This is so, so important. I know we've said it a few times here. Not what a perfect nurse would do, not what a doctor would do, but what a reasonable and prudent nurse would do in that same situation. Now let me walk you through some common examples of negligent acts and that would reach that standard of care, because these are quite Likely to show up on your exams, medication and IV errors. So giving the wrong medication, the incorrect dose, or failing to monitor an IV leading to a patient's injury. So remember the rights of medication administration. You've got to use those every single time. And then the failure to monitor and assess your patients. So not adequately monitoring a patient's clinical condition, failing to notice changes in their condition, or not reporting those changes to the appropriate provider. Now this is huge. You have to assess and communicate those findings. And then falls. Failing to implement safety protocols for a patient at a risk for falling equipment failure. This would be incorrectly using medical equipment or failing to check if it's working properly before using it. And then communicating communication failures. Giving an incomplete report to the next shift, or failing to convey important instructions to the patient or to the patient's family. And then documentation errors. And this is a big, big, big one. Inaccurate or incomplete documentation is a major red flag. The electronic health record should be a truthful account of the care provided to the patient. So it's crucial to conduct your own assessments rather than copying the previous assessment entries from the previous shift. Now here's a key NCLEX point for you. If it wasn't documented, it was not done. Your documentation is your best defense in court. Now let's talk about protecting yourself and protecting your patients. Understanding these legal principles is not about creating fear in healthcare professionals. It's about empowering you to practice safely and advocate effectively for your patients. So here are some key strategies that you can use to avoid liability. We want to follow the standard of care always. So we're providing competent care, safe care, and we want to stay current with evidence based practices and then communicate effectively. We want to maintain clear and open communication with your patients, with their families, families as necessary, and with the health care team. And then we want to document thoroughly and truthfully so that documentation, that is your best defense, right? It should be accurate, it should be timely, and your documentation should be complete. You need to know and follow your facility policies. So familiarize yourself with your employer's policies and their procedures and they often reflect the standard of care. And then consider professional liability insurance. So while many facilities might provide insurance, having your own policy really ensures that you have an attorney whose sole focus is protecting your interests, not the facilities. And finally, let's talk about Good Samaritan laws, because this is another one that the NCLEX really likes to test on. So these laws, these are designed to protect healthcare professionals who provide emergency assistance, assistance outside of their work environment. So they generally offer immunity from lawsuits as long as the care given is not intentionally negligent and no compensation is received. So here's your key nclex point for this one. Good Samaritan laws protect you when you help in an emergency situation outside of work as long as you're not being paid and you're not being intentionally negligent. These could be things like helping someone who's choking in a restaurant, witnessing and helping after a car accident, or giving CPR at a grocery store. Things like that. So those are the major legal responsibilities that you need to know as a nurse. Torts. These include intentional, quasi intentional, and unintentional torts. The first five elements of negligence and malpractice. Those are duty, breach, foreseeability, causation, and harm. And we have the standard of care and the Good Samaritan laws. So remember, by integrating these legal principles into your daily practice and of course, knowing them for your exams, you can ensure that you're providing the highest quality of care and protecting your patients. And you're safeguarding your professional career by understanding this information and using it in practice.

And one of the biggest things that will help you on your nursing school exams is knowing how to answer those.

Really, really tricky prioritization questions that they throw at you.

So your next step is to click on this video here to get my top tips for answering those types of.

Questions correctly on your exams.

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Nursing laws and torts cheat sheet that I have for you so you can.

Remember all of these for your exams.

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