subject: Nurse Trainee Who Failed To Recognize Fetal Distress Must Pay Out $4.4 Million [print this page] If seen by a doctor or a nurse people usually have an expectation that the doctor or nurse either (1) has the skills and experience to make a correct diagnosis of whatever is wrong with their health and order the best treatment or (2) is being supervised by a more experienced physician or nurse who does. Under the second situation, they can learn while treating actual patients if their errors are noticed and rectified so that patients are not hurt. After all, they go to school, study, and spend many, many hours learning practical knowledge by real experience. However before they achieve an appropriate degree of experience they are likely to make errors. And going back to expectations people want to be confident that any such error will not hurt them.
Physicians and nurses who are still in training should appreciate that there are boundaries to their know-how and expertise. 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 needed to act on their own. If hey do not realizing this, the level of supervision will be inadequate and can lead to errors. And with a lack of proper supervision these errors will not be caught and remedied resulting in devastating consequences.
Consider a case that was documented which involved a near full-term pregnant woman. She was almost at full term. The expectant mother took herself to the hospital following persistent nausea and vomiting. While at the hospital the woman was monitored by a nurse trainee. The nurse trainee read the results as normal, concluding that the baby was doing well and in no danger, even though they actually revealed signs of severe fetal distress, a situation which calls for immediate attention. The woman was sent home not knowing that her baby was suffering from a lack of oxygen..
Three days after the infant was delivered as planned. She was born with 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 only survived to age four from cerebral palsy complications. She was survived by her father and mother and by her 11 and 16 year old brothers. 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 case shows how dangerous it is for a nurse trainee to treat patients without supervision from a doctor or a registered supervising nurse. Although an experienced doctor or nurse can make an error and misread the results of a fetal heart rate monitor, it is much more likely that a nurse trainee will make that sort of a mistake. An experienced physician or obstetrics nurses will probably have dealt with hundreds or even thousands of fetal heart rate monitor strips and fine tuned the ability to tell when it shows an abnormal pattern that requires immediate attention. And when a mistake by a nurse trainee is not caught by a supervising doctor or nurse the result, as in the situation discussed above, can have tragic consequences and might end in a malpractice lawsuit.
