Nurses are becoming involved in malpractice lawsuits at an alarming rate. The increased specialization, expertise, accountability, and autonomy of the nursing profession has concomittantly increased their exposure to liability. As nurses push the envelope of their profession, they must safeguard themselves against a burgeoning litigation crisis, which had previously been shouldered exclusively by hospitals and physicians.
Nurses must recognize that the relationship between hospitals and their employees is undergoing a fundamental change in terms of legal accountability. Although the doctrine of respondeat superior, in which the employer is responsible for the actions of the employee, is still used by most courts, increasingly, hospitals and their insurance carriers are seeking damages from negligent employees: "The paternalistic attitudes of the past, in which the physician and the hospital willingly accepted all responsibility--including that of the nurse--without seeking compensation from the employee are no longer the norm." Federal healthcare employees face different liability issues than their private sector counterparts. Generally, federal employees cannot be sued individually for malpractice if an employee-employer relationship is clearly established. In this relationship, the employer has the right to control the actions of the employee. Some professionals who provide healthcare services to the government are actually independent contractors. In such instances, the federal government is not liable for malpractice claims. The independent status of the healthcare professional depends on the circumstances involved in the case. For example, an appeals court ruled that a nurse employed at a government hospital through a temporary placement services agency was a federal employee because the placement agency had no control over the nurse's duties at the hospital.
Hospitals incur enormous costs because of malprac...