If a patient or one of their family members blames you for an adverse medical outcome or other issues with their quality of care, they could alert the Board of Registered Nursing to their concern. Anyone can make a complaint, and some of those complaints could lead to licensing review and disciplinary action.
How do you protect yourself from unfair allegations of negligence as a nursing professional?
Documents what you do, even as a home health professional
All that paperwork your job requires may actually help protect you from oversights — and accusations. The records kept while doing your job in a corporate practice may be sufficient to show that you provided an adequate standard of care to the patient in question.
Even if you perform support care in someone’s home, documenting every service you provide can help protect you. The more carefully you document everything that you do on the job, the easier it will be to establish that you provided an appropriate standard of care. For example, records showing that you checked the blood pressure of a patient every two hours will make it clear that you never left the patient unattended for any significant amount of time.
Show that your actions reflect standard and appropriate care
Those struggling to cope with a medical condition and family members grieving the loss of a loved one may make cognitive leaps. Believing that a nurse didn’t do their job can make it easier to cope with a tragic medical scenario. Many people simply cannot accept the harsh reality: Even with great medical care, patients don’t always get better.
You can fight back against allegations of nursing negligence. You will have the opportunity to defend your license in front of the board after allegations about negligence on the job.
