Nursing Licensure:
The area of nursing licensure encompasses any issue pertaining to obtaining or maintaining a nursing license in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Our office advises and advocates on behalf of nurses with respect to all types of professional licensing issues, including the suspension or revocation of a nursing license.
A nurse practitioner must be officially licensed as an RN, which entails the completion of a Master’s program or postgraduate coursework in a specialty area. Such studies prepare the nurse to diagnose, treat, and prescribe medication within the nurse’s specialty area and in accordance with the state's Nurse Practice Act.
In addition, nurses teach and provide counseling in the health field, perform assessments in a variety of contexts and implement health care policies as part of a team within the health community.
Nursing malpractice is a type of medical malpractice, committed by a nurse within the performance of nursing duties. Defending a malpractice is a complex endeavor which must be handled by attorneys with specific knowledge and experience in the field.
Nursing malpractice can be defined legally as a type of negligence -- an act or omission by a nurse -- specifically, one which does not conform with the standards of practice in the nursing community, and which results in harm or injury to a patient.
In the typical malpractice case, the plaintiff (party bringing forth the lawsuit) is or was the patient (or a designated party acting on the patient’s behalf) and the defendant is the health care provider or institution. In order to establish a successful malpractice claim (lawsuit), the plaintiff must prove the following elements:
(1) A duty was owed -- a legal duty of care exists whenever a health
care professional assumed a patient/provider relationship;
(2) A duty was breached -- it must be proven that the health care
provider failed to satisfy a standard of care expected of him/her
(expert testimony is often relied upon to prove "standard of care" in
these types of cases);
(3) The plaintiff suffers damages -- the plaintiff must have suffered
physical, monetary, or emotional injury; and
(4) The defendant caused an injury -- it must be demonstrated that
the breach (departure from standards) was the proximate cause of
the injury suffered by the plaintiff.