subject: Malpractice Case Ends In $4.4 Million Award When Inexperienced Nurse Did Not Diagnose Fetal Distress [print this page] While treated by a doctor or a nurse patients typically come with an expectation that the doctor or nurse either (1) has the skills and experience to make a proper diagnosis of anything that they may have and recommend appropriate treatment or (2) is being supervised by a more experienced physician or nurse who does. According to the second possibility, they can learn while treating actual patients if their mistakes are noticed and rectified so that patients are not harmed. After all, they attend school, study, and devote many, many hours learning practical knowledge by real experience. But before they achieve a suitable level of experience they will probably make errors. And returning to expectations people want to be confident that any such error will not hurt them.
While in the training stages new physicians and nurses have to realize what they can and cannot do. The senior physicians and nurses who supervise those who are in training must also understand that those in training have not yet fully achieved the knowledge and skills required to act on their own. If hey do not realizing this, the level of supervision will not be sufficient and can lead to mistakes. And with a lack of proper supervision these mistakes will not be caught and corrected resulting in devastating outcomes.
Consider a claim that was reported which concerned a near full-term expectant mother. She was nearly at full term. The woman went to a hospital following persistent nausea and vomiting. While at the hospital the pregnant woman was monitored by a nurse trainee. It was the nurse trainee, instead of a registered nurse or a physician who interpreted the strip from the fetal heart rate monitor. Interpreting the strip as normal and concluding that there was no danger to the unborn baby, the nurse trainee discharged the expectant mother. Actually, the baby's oxygen supply was severely blocked and that the baby's health was in grave danger.
The delivery took place three days after the visit to the hospital after 3 days. This was when the delivery was scheduled. She had suffered severe brain injury and developed cerebral palsy. The baby had a seizure disorder. She could not eat without the help of a feeding tube. She needed therapy to keep her body from atrophying. She died at age 4 from cerebral palsy complications. She was survived by her parents and by her two older brothers. One was eleven and the other was sixteen. The law firm that filed a lawsuit on the family's behalf reported that the case went to trial and that the jury returned a verdict in favor of the parents for $4,400,000.
This matter shows what can occur if a physician or nurse who is still in training is allowed to treat patients on their own before having fully developing the necessary skills. A nurse trainee is much more likely to make an error that can cause a significant injury to a patient. But while an experienced labor and delivery nurse has interpreted hundreds or thousands of these strips a nurse trainee has only read a few and is much more prone to make an error. And when a mistake by a nurse trainee is not caught by a supervising physician or nurse the outcome, as in the situation reviewed above, can have tragic consequences and might end in a malpractice lawsuit.
