Question

A home healthcare and dialysis nurse visited one of her home health patients and found him in a weakened state. Concerned, she took the patient to a hospital emergency room, and after several hours, the patient was admitted to the hospital. In an effort to help and to show concern for the patient, the nurse followed the emergency room technician to assist in transferring the patient. The technician's duties included transferring patients from gurneys to beds. The first step in a transfer is to lock the two beds together. If there is no one aiding in the patient transfer, the bed railing on the opposite side must be in the upright position to prevent the patient from rolling off the bed during the transfer. In this case, the technician positioned the gurney next to the hospital bed to facilitate a rolling transfer but did not place the bed railing on the opposite side in the upright position. The nurse stood at the foot of the gurney while the patient was asked to roll from the gurney onto the hospital bed. The nurse thought the patient was about to roll off the far side of the bed, and she jumped across the bed to grab him. When the nurse grabbed the patient, she felt a sharp pain across her lower back, and severe pain radiating into her left leg. Due to this injury, the nurse filed suit against the hospital alleging negligence and medical negligence. (Note: Even though the nurse was essentially just a visitor at this time, the hospital would still owe her a duty of care, at least ordinary care.)

  1. Should the hospital be liable to the nurse in this situation? Can she establish all the elements of negligence?

2. Are there affirmative defenses available to the hospital that might shield them from liability?

Answer 1

1.The nurses roles and responsibilities are in the policy of a hospital. The hospital being the employer are supposed to train and protect their staff from any untoward incidents which may result in physical or psychological issues.The hospital will ne held responsible and can be liable under law.The others are lack of or no intervening of EMS nurses during transfer resulting in injury.Ni adequate training programs conducted to the staffs.

The all four elements of negligence duty, breach, damage and causation are applicable here.(The patient had a very unsafe environment during transfer and resulted in injury)

2.One of the affirmative defense is the element of causation where proving the link is little difficult. To detail how this incident occured and what the result is.What precautions was taken to prevent fall.The nurses crossing their designated area and caring for patient without any information or supervision of the concerned department.The nurses lack of knowledge on transfer techniques resulting in her injury.Maintainance of proper records.These things can protect the hospital from liability issues.