Negligence Paper

Negligence Paper

According to Guido (2010), negligence is defined as “with carelessness, a deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would use in a particular set of circumstances” (p. 92). Ashley (2003) states that negligence is when a person does or does not do something that a normal reasonable person would do. Ashley (2003) also states that a reasonable person is a person in which would do something in order to avoid injury to them or another person. Malpractice, is also referred to as professional negligence, and is a more specific term that addresses the professional standards of care as well as the professional status of the caregiver (Croke, 2003). In malpractice, the person doing wrong must be a professional, such as a doctor or nurse. “Malpractice is the failure of a professional person to act in accordance with the prevailing professional standards or failure to foresee consequences that a professional person, having the necessary skills and education, should foresee” (Guido, 2010). Gross negligence is a reckless disregard for the safety or lives of other people and it seems to appear to be a conscious violation of other people’s rights to safety. The difference between negligence and gross negligence is the fact that in gross negligence the person consciously violates and disregards the safety of a person so far below the standards of care that they are deemed “gross” for doing so. The difference between negligence and malpractice is the simple fact that malpractice is the negligence of a professional person, such as a doctor or a nurse, who are trained to know the standards of care.

In the Nursing Neighborhood Season 3, Episode 7, the newspaper contained an article about a 62 year old man, Joseph Benson, who was a diabetic who suffered from poor circulation for over the last five years. He was in the hospital to undergo a below the knee amputation on his left leg. When he woke up after surgery, he realized the surgery team at the hospital performed the amputation on the wrong leg. The hospital had no comments after this happened and stated that they were in a dire time within the hospital due to issues such as union problems and nursing shortages. The title of this newspaper article was “Amputation Mishap; Negligence.” I disagree with the newspaper article in different ways. After defining what negligence, gross negligence, and malpractice are, I would not title this article as just simple negligence. I would say this article is a form of malpractice because it was a mistake of the healthcare team within the operation room. I would actually go as far to say this would be gross malpractice if possible because amputating the wrong extremity goes way below the normal standards of care a doctor and nurse give a patient. This was carelessness on the healthcare team’s part. I also disagree that the hospital had no comments and had the excuse of bringing