Nursing Errors

Utah Nursing Errors Attorney

Most people are familiar with medical malpractice actions where a doctor can be held legally liable for any negligent actions that causes injury to their patient. The same type of legal liability can also be applied to a nurse who fails to provide a standard of care for the patient and that patient suffers harm as a result of that failure. If you have suffered injury or illness because of a medical professional’s negligence, contact Rasmussen & Miner to speak with a nursing errors attorney Utah families trust.

What Constitutes Nursing Errors?

While anyone can make a mistake in their job, when a doctor, nurse, or other medical professional makes an error, it can cost the patient their life. Some of the more common types of errors that a nurse can make which can result in harm to their patient include:

• Burning the patient with medical equipment
• Causing injury to a patient by not using medical equipment or device correctly
• Failure to monitor the patient for any adverse side effects from medication
• Failure to monitor the patient’s condition
• Failure to notify the patient’s doctor of any changes in the patient’s condition
• Giving the patient the wrong dosage of medication
• Giving the patient the wrong medication
• Knocking over medical equipment onto a patient
• Leaving a sponge or other surgical instrument inside a patient during/after surgery
• Working under the influence of alcohol
• Working under the influence of alcohol or drugs
• Working while fatigued

Who Is Liable for Nursing Errors?

When a nurse is found to have been negligent and that negligence resulted in harm to the patient, the Utah nursing errors attorney will then determine who is liable for damages the patient is entitled to under the law for the losses their injuries have caused them to suffer. In many cases, the hospital may be legally liable if these factors are present:

•  The nurse is employed by the hospital.
• The nurse was in the process of a required duty when the patient was harmed.
• There was no doctor independent of the hospital who was in control of the nurse at the time of the error.

There are some instances where the hospital may not be liable even if the nurse was employed there. One of the most common is if the attending physician was supervising the nurse at the time the error was made. Questions that determine this situation include:

• Was the attending physician present at the time the nursing error was made?
• Did the attending physician have the ability to prevent the nurse’s error?
• Did the attending physician give incorrect orders that the nurse knew were incorrect (or should have known) but followed those orders anyway.

Our Firm Understands How to Win These Cases

The most important role a nurse plays in a hospital or a nursing home is that of an educated observer. The nurse is in close and frequent contact with the patient and is usually the first person to see a change in a patient’s medical condition. By taking the patients vital signs frequently, and reporting them promptly to the physician, the nurse ensures prompt treatment for any developing medical conditions or post-surgical problems.

The nurse is also in a critical position to identify a medication error before it occurs. The nurse’s training and experience should alert him or her to pharmacy errors with dosage or possible drug interactions.

Nurses, like doctors, have a duty to do no harm. When nurses are negligent in that duty, patients suffer.

Nursing negligence is completely avoidable and yet every year patients in Utah suffer serious injuries or death because a nursing error in failing to follow doctors’ orders, to report changes in a patient’s condition, or to question obvious errors.

At Rasmussen & Miner, each Utah nursing errors attorney helps injured people and grieving families get answers and financial recovery after serious injuries caused by nursing errors. With more than 20 years of experience and a track record of results, we’re the law firm injured people turn to. Contact our Salt Lake City law office to speak with an experienced medical malpractice attorney at no cost.

Why You Need an Experienced Legal Advocate

Nursing error cases can be very difficult. Patients are often in unstable health to start and the nursing negligence worsens a situation that may or may not have occurred otherwise. At Rasmussen & Miner, we work with medical experts from around the region to help build cases for nurse malpractice.

Some cases we’ve handled include:

• Failure to assess and report vital signs
• Failure to follow orders
• Failure to measure fluid intake and output and to notice signs of dehydration
• Failure to notice respiratory acidosis, leading to kidney failure
• Medication errors, delivering the wrong dosage or delivering a drug in the wrong way

Contact Our Office for Help

If you believe you have been a victim of a nursing error, contact Rasmussen & Miner to schedule a free and confidential consultation with a Utah nursing errors attorney. We will evaluate your case and discuss what legal recourse you may have.