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Chelle Law
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Major Court Case Brings Nurse Practitioner Malpractice Insurance Into the Limelight

What started as a simple mistake ended up traversing three years, two different trials, and involved thousands of hours of investigative work. On December 26th, 2017 former Vanderbilt hospital nurse RaDonda Vaught allegedly gave a patient in the hospital the wrong medication, which lead to the patient’s death. The Tennessean, a newspaper covering the Nashville area reports the following: 

During a final scan in the hospital’s radiology department, Murphey is supposed to be given a sedative, Versed, but is accidentally given a dose of vecuronium, a powerful paralyzing medication, according to a federal investigations report. The drug leaves her brain dead.

Vaught allegedly admits to hospital staff she is responsible for the medication error.

Despite the fact that RaDonda Vaught quickly admitted to her error, she was criminally indicted for the mistake. In court, Vaught took full responsibility for the error that she made, but she also claimed that it was the result of faulty procedures used by nurses in the hospital every day. Despite her statements about the hospital’s procedures and how they could have been structured better, the Tennessee Board of Nursing was unswayed and ultimately voted to strip Vaught of her nursing license. 

The Vital Nature of Nurse Practitioner Malpractice Insurance

The story above should illustrate an important lesson about the sacred work that nurses do and just how quickly that work can be turned upside down. RaDonda Vaught, who is only 38 years old at the time of this writing and had only been a nurse at Vanderbilt Hospital for two years at the time of the incident has now had her entire life turned upside down. She has been sentenced to 3 years probation, lost her nursing license, and has had her reputation damaged seemingly beyond all repair. Even as letters of support for Vaught come in from all over the country, one has to wonder what they would do if they were in her shoes. 

Nurse practitioner malpractice insurance is created precisely for situations like this. Regardless of where you come down about the particular actions that this individual nurse took, the fact remains that she was charged and ultimately convicted of malpractice. If she had a significant malpractice insurance policy, it would not have saved her from the reputational harm that was done as a result of this case, but it might have put her on a better path financially speaking. 

Peace of Mind For a Small Price

The hectic nature of the work that nurses do is good enough reason all by itself to consider getting malpractice insurance to keep yourself covered and protected. After all, the cost of the insurance is a small price to pay for some peace of mind when you are working with your patients. Wouldn’t you rather be able to focus all of your attention and energy on your patient instead of being constantly distracted by a nagging worry that you might be doing something wrong? 

Defend Your License and Protect Your Assets

A nurse’s license is his or her lifeline to be able to work in the career that they have worked so hard to build. They spend countless hours hitting the books and doing clinical work in order to be certified as a registered nurse who is licensed by the state to provide medical care to patients. After all of that hard work and struggle, wouldn’t you want to protect your license at all costs? That is what malpractice insurance can help you do. If you are sued as the result of the care that you provided to a patient, your malpractice insurance will help protect your license from being revoked in many cases. 

Additionally, your insurance policy can protect valuable assets that you have in your name from being taken away as the result of a lawsuit. For example, if you own your home, vehicle, or another tangible asset that could be taken away from you as the result of a lawsuit, you need coverage.

Protection Outside of a Given Medical Institution

Some nurses think that they don’t need to purchase a malpractice policy of their own because they already have one through their employer. It is true that many hospitals and doctors’ offices provide nurses with a limited malpractice policy as part of the contract that they sign when they agree to work there. However, those policies have a limited scope of usefulness, and you may be surprised to learn that they won’t cover nursing work that you do outside of the building where you are employed. In some cases, even if the outside event is sponsored by your employer, it still may not be covered on your malpractice policy through your employer. 

Should You Contact an Attorney About Malpractice Provisions in Your Contract? 

Have you ever stopped and wondered if there was a reason why you should perhaps stop and contact a nurse practitioner contract attorney about the various provisions written into your nursing contract? You are not wrong for having this thought. 

An attorney can go over the questions you may have about your contract to ensure that it is a safe contract for you to sign: 

  • Does it provide adequate malpractice insurance for you? 
  • What are the stipulations attached to the malpractice insurance that is provided? 
  • Are there reasons to believe that you should purchase additional malpractice insurance on top of what is automatically provided by your employer?
  • Is there anything else that you should ask for from your employer before accepting the position (such as the removal of a non compete)? 

Your attorney is on your side in all of these matters, and he or she will look out for you in ways that no employer ever will. Scanning through contracts to look for anything that might raise a red flag is what these professionals are paid to do. 

Hiring an attorney to go over your contract takes just a short amount of time and a small amount of money to buy you the peace of mind that you want when you dive into a new job. If you would like to get a meeting set up with one of our talented professionals who can go over every aspect of your contract line by line, we strongly encourage you to contact us and let us know how we can be of assistance today.  

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Based on 121 reviews.
Melinda Striyle
Melinda Striyle
2022-06-12
Attentive, respectful, great to work with.
Jenn Lighthall
Jenn Lighthall
2022-06-10
Absolutely fantastic. I would give more than five stars if I could. Highly recommend!
Meghna C.
Meghna C.
2022-05-31
Renee was great to work with when negotiating my contract! I am a resident physician signing on for my first attending job, and I felt more comfortable with the language used in the contract after going over it with Renee. I also got a higher starting salary which made the price more than worth it. I would definitely use Chelle Law again!
Jennifer Nevis
Jennifer Nevis
2022-05-30
Erin Howlett saved me from a terrible situation and I can't thank her enough. I had accepted a veterinary dental residency in northern Illinois with a private practice. The letter of intent was routine yet the actual contract so punitive and predatory in nature that it was hard to believe it was from the same people. Erin believed I was worth more than the "Zero" this practice claimed. Without her on my side, I would have naively signed this "bait and switch" and been finacially and professionally ruined if I couldn't complete the 6 year commitment this practice demanded.
robin singh
robin singh
2022-05-27
I consulted with Chelle law for contract review. They were suggested by our employer. Renee osipov was incredibly helpful and was able to navigate me in right direction. I fully recommend them.
Melanie Schlote
Melanie Schlote
2022-05-22
Erin was so professional and very quick to respond. She took the stress away from contract reviewing and made me feel confident in this next step of my career.
Mitul Patel
Mitul Patel
2022-05-22
I contacted Chelle Law for my dental contract review. I am very pleased with contact review with Attorney Renee. Renee was very kind, helpful, honest, informative and knowledgeable. She had some solid advice regarding negotiations. Katie was very helpful to schedule appointment with Renee within few days. I had some questions next day and emailed her and she responded back to me within an hour. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND CHELLE LAW FOR YOUR CONTRACT REVIEW. THANK YOU!!
Anna Etzler
Anna Etzler
2022-05-20
Renee was wonderful to work with and helped me with a contract review for my first NP job. She took the time to help me understand each section of the contract and even helped me successfully negotiate so that the contract would best fit my needs. Chelle Law was very responsive to my needs and set up my initial review and revision review in a timely manner! I would highly recommend their services to anyone in the medical profession.
Alan W
Alan W
2022-05-16
Had the privilege of working with their attorney Renee. She was really thorough, professional, and went above and beyond in reviewing my contract. Couldn't have asked for a better experience.

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