(HS 078583 Sheffield 2023) Anticipate Post Operative Complications & Avoid Legal Ramifications

Course overview

What is Due Care? Due Care is the legal term for what a reasonable nurse would do in the same circumstance. How you react to post-operative complications will be judged against how a reasonable nurse in the same situation would react. With the increase in patient acuity, most nurses will experience untoward post-operative events in their career. Whether these complications occur is not the issue, but rather how the complications are handled may be the difference as to whether you are involved in a legal action. The medical-surgical nurse must understand and anticipate post-operative problems quickly before they become insurmountable events. In addition to anticipating possible complications, reviewing adjudicated (completed) legal cases illustrates the ramifications for failure to identify and act on post-operative complications.