Discussion 03.4: Injured Nurse Scenario (based on a real Florida case): A home h
ID: 428968 • Letter: D
Question
Discussion 03.4: Injured Nurse
Scenario (based on a real Florida case): A home healthcare and dialysis nurse visited one of her home health patients and found him in a weakened state. Concerned, she took the patient to a hospital emergency room, and after several hours, the patient was admitted to the hospital. In an effort to help and show concern for the patient, the nurse followed the emergency room technician to assist in transferring the patient. The technician's duties included transferring patients from gurneys to beds. The first step in a transfer is to lock the two beds together. If there is no one aiding in the patient transfer, the bed railing on the opposite side must be in the upright position to prevent the patient from rolling off the bed during the transfer. In this case, the technician positioned the gurney next to the hospital bed to facilitate a rolling transfer, but did not place the bed railing on the opposite side in the upright position. The nurse stood at the foot of the gurney while the patient was asked to roll from the gurney onto the hospital bed. The nurse thought the patient was about to roll off the far side of the bed, and she jumped across the bed to grab him. When the nurse grabbed the patient, she felt a sharp pain across her lower back, and severe pain radiating into her left leg. Due to this injury, the nurse filed suit against the hospital alleging negligence and medical negligence.
Although she was essentially just a visitor at this time, what duty of care did the hospital owe to the nurse?
What affirmative defenses might the hospital raise? Is the hospital entirely to blame, or might the nurse have played a role in causing her own injuries? Why or why not?
Explanation / Answer
As far as the idea of duty of care goes, the hospital owes her the property owners’ duty of care. Ideally during this visit, the nurse was a visitor and should not have been there helping the technician. The technician should have handled the transfer of the patient from gurney to the bed. However, the technician failed to do that and the nurse was hurt. The hospital should not have allowed the nurse to help with the transfer in the first place and owed her the duty of care to prevent such occurrence.
Hospital may raise defense by stating that the nurse was aware of the risk and the rules of the hospital but broke the rule on her own decision. She knew that she was not supposed to be helping the technician during her off-duty. However, since she decided to do it, she herself is responsible for the injury.
Legally, the hospital will be blamed entirely. The duty of the hospital was to make sure that the people who are off duty do not participate in the operational activities. However, the hospital was negligent in doing so. In addition, the technician was negligent to lock the beds together and this caused the injury to the nurse. Now, as per the doctrine of respondeat superior in employment act, the employer is liable for any tort caused by employees during the line of duty. This falls in that particular category.