A role of professional nurses is held to the rule of personal liability, which states that each person is liable (accountable or answerable) for his or her own negligent acts. The registered nurse is required to perform care in a safe and effective manner and is liable for negligent acts that occur in the course of carrying out nursing duties. The courts recognize nurses as professionals who must possess the specialized knowledge and skills required to identify complications and manage emergencies. Nurses are held to the standards of their profession and are separately liable for their acts, even when carrying out physician or advanced practice nurse orders.
Violence, accidents, and thermal injury account for many hospitalizations. The overall mortality in these persons is near 20%. Those who survive may not return to their previous level of independence. Surprisingly, health status before injury has little to do with survival rate after accident. The explanation seems to indicate that prior health status may not provide a true index of functional capacity.
In the United States the overall accidental death rate is 34 per 100,000 populations and has been consistently dropping in all causes since 1970 with one exception. There are now more than twice as many deaths from accidental poisoning by drugs and medicines. Individuals are particularly subject to falls, suffocation, and motor vehicle accidents. Falls create the most accidental fatalities, and the majority of these occur in the home. The second highest cause of accidental deaths of individuals over 80 is motor vehicle accidents. The incidence of these deaths has gradually increased since 1980, while in all other age categories the incidence of vehicular accident deaths has decreased significantly.
Thus in such kind of emergencies, the nurse is expected to exercise professional judgment in evaluating the provider's orders. The American Medical.......
