1 Developed primarily for specific diagnoses or surgical procedures, these tools identify expected patient outcomes, associated care provider interventions and expected treatment time. Clinical paths comprise a group of instruments known as care pathways, critical paths, care maps and care tracks. Clinical paths can decrease rates of patient complications and readmission, reduce resource utilization, decrease errors, enhance patient education and augment patient satisfaction. 2 Understanding common negligence issues as well as crucial areas of malpractice vulnerability in regard to clinical paths can reduce legal liability and enhance legal advantages. 3 Duty is the easiest of the four principles to prove in nursing malpractice.
Nurses owe their patients a duty to act in accordance with the standard of care.
The standard of care, a hypothetical measuring scale, assesses care rendered by a reasonable nurse with reasonable skills using reasonable judgment in a given situation. It is the minimum level of conduct to which a nurse is held accountable. In a courtroom, the standard of care is defined by expert witnesses who testify to whether or not the defendant nurse met the standard. A breach in duty occurs when the level of nurse conduct is below the professional standard of care. Failure to provide care that is within the standard is known as negligence.