Analysis of Legal Liability in Medical Accident due to Nursing Practice through Precedents

Korean J Leg Med 2019;43:119-128

Department of Forensic Medicine, Chosun University School of Medicine, Gwangju, Korea,

Department of Law, Chosun University College of Law, Gwangju, Korea

E-mail: ysk007fm@hotmail.com

These days, medical practice tends to be highly specialized and divided into qualified medical personnel, including nurses. Recent amendments of medical law show the change of the nurse’s role in medical practice. Traditionally, nursing has been an aid work to doctor’s practices and is one of the core parts of medical practices. Nurses are a skilled occupational group and individuals are trained and licensed as professionals during their educational courses under government supervision. Because all of the nursing practices cannot be directed or recognized by doctors and nurses are building their own expertise as healthcare providers, they can be held accountable in medical malpractice. In the past, from the perspective of legal responsibility, the nurse was only regarded as an assistant to a doctor; hence, a nurse’s malpractice was concluded as a supervising doctor’s liability. In the case of medical malpractice caused by nurses, the range of responsibility will be different, depending on the scope of the work carried out by nurse and whether it was supervised by a doctor. Therefore, further discussion is needed regarding the scope of independent nursing practice in order to distribute the legal liability. The authors reviewed ten cases of precedents of medical dispute, examined the events in-depth, and analyzed the court rulings determining the legal responsibility of a doctor or nurse.

Key Words: Medical malpractice; Nursing practice; Liability; Precedent