Nurse practitioners are healthcare clinicians who are competent and certified in curing sicknesses and tending to other medical emergencies. Additionally, they give support to injury and disease prevention in patients. The podiatrists are responsible for examining and mentoring other nurses and staff and giving services in family health, pediatric health, and critical upkeep (Buppert, 2018). Malpractice insurance is a specialized obligation cover that protects doctors’ accountability arising from services that result in a patient’s grievance or demise. This essay discusses the claim malpractice insurance and occurrence malpractice insurance, the policies involved, as well as demonstrates why it is worth becoming a practitioner despite the lawsuits against psychiatrists.
Claim insurance offers coverage when the incident occurred and when the lawsuit is filed. This type offers a period of insurance known as the tail that encompasses the covering for specific years after the policy ends (Butler, 2019). The policy only covers nurses when under the cover during a claim period. In this type of policy, the coverage is portable from one carrier to another. The nurse practitioners (NP) can apply a claim policy to another insurance provider that offers the same protection acts as long as the coverage is active from the previous company. The new provider then takes the dates of the old policy and endorses it onto the new policy, which covers the same period as the first insurance.
Occurrence malpractice insurance offers treatment to incidents that occur throughout the policy term, irrespective of the time a claim has been reported to the provider. Thus, the above means that if a case is filed against the practitioner about an incident that occurred when the nurse was still within the cover, the claim will be shielded even if the liability policy has lapsed. With this type, the nurse will not need a new tail coverage or renewal after leaving the policy company or after retiring (Buppert, 2018). This type does not require tail coverage, although it is more costly and hence not supported by most nurses.
Practitioners face lawsuits such as failure to diagnose correctly, which covers 32.9% of the total cases. The podiatrists are prosecuted for poor administration and negligence in the provision of a secure environment for in-patients (Butler, 2019). The nurses get sued for failing to give sufficient follow-up testing and biopsy after an examination, poor monitoring, slow treatment services, and improper medical prescription. For example, in 2010, a 77-year-old patient sued an NP for improper monitoring and treatment of a urinary tract infection (UTI) that led to significant complications in recovery and remission. The patient later died because of poor medication on antibiotics resistant to the identified UTI straining.
Despite the expenses of malpractice insurance and lawsuits against the surgeons, it is worth becoming a practitioner because the nurses are covered in case of being sued for malpractice. The coverage protects the NPs from financial damages that result from a lawsuit (Buppert, 2018). Despite occurrence coverage being expensive, surgeons choose this type because the nurse will be covered even after retiring or if they choose to leave the policy provider once a case is filed.
In conclusion, lawsuits filed against nurses and the expenses of malpractice insurance should not hinder people from being interested in becoming a Nurse practitioner because the policy offers complete protection after a claim is filed. Although occurrence insurance is more expensive than a claim policy, it is better because the nurse will be protected even after retiring or leaving the company if a claim is filed against the NP.
References
Buppert, C. (2018). Can a nurse practitioner go to jail for malpractice or other things done in clinical practice? The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 14(6), 503-504. Web.
Butler, S. (2019). Do all nurses need malpractice insurance? Journal of Radiology Nursing, 38(3), 148-149. Web.
