Nurse and Patient Dispute Litigation in Independent Nursing Practice

Abstract

Although medical dispute and other contentious cases involving patients and nurses have risen significantly in recent years, few studies have examined the litigation issues involved in nurse-patient disputes. This study was designed to explore the background, categories, and degrees of harm to patients and the judgments made by the courts. Qualitative research was used. Cases of criminal, written judgments related to nurse practice negligence and recorded in district courts in Taiwan from 2008 to 2017 were selected. Data were analyzed using content analysis. A total of 41 hospitals and 55 nurses were identified. The largest number of cases involved regional hospitals (36.6%), internal medicine departments (31.7%), general wards (46.3%), night shifts (40.0%), and staff nurses (85.5%). Four categories of independent nurse practice negligence were identified, including observation-evaluation, environmental security, physician notification, and nursing records. Negligent homicide (58.2%) was the most common court judgment and ten nurses (18.2%) were found guilty of the charges brought against them. The results of this study highlight for nurses the content of nurse practice negligence and the related judgments by the courts, which hopefully may guide nurses to avoid practice negligence in the future.