The manager's failure to notify staff could contribute to any patient injury caused by equipment failure. It must be proved that the nurse's actions or failure to act caused the plaintiff's injuries to make a negligence case. For example, failure to document may deviate from the required standard of care, but that failure alone may not directly cause an injury. Failure to document, however, can force a nurse to rely on her ability as a witness to convince a jury that she rendered appropriate care, but failed to document her actions. This unfortunate position requires the nurse to rely on her memory or, if she can't recall, to describe what she customarily does in similar circumstances.
Appropriate documentation can help a nurse avoid a lawsuit or facilitate early dismissal.
For instance, documentation that a patient's vital signs remained stable, may be used as evidence to refute allegations that the nurse failed to notify the physician about a change in the patient's status. But documentation that a nurse tried numerous times, unsuccessfully, to contact a physician about a patient's low blood pressure won't protect him from an allegation for failure to notify the physician. Similarly, being short-staffed cannot directly cause a patient's injury. The courts see any attribution to inadequate staffing as irrelevant if a nurse fails to perform as expected and causes the plaintiff's injury. Being short-staffed is never a defense to negligently rendered patient care.