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It is very important that you have LPN malpractice insurance as this is the only way to protect yourself in cases where people accuse you of not performing your duties as an LPN to the best of your ability and perhaps even harming a patient. Malpractice insurance is not just for doctors.
There are many cases in which malpractice insurance will come in handy, and, although you hope to avoid these situations, you never know when that may arise. It is important to look at reasons why you need to get your own personal malpractice insurance and why you cannot simply rely on the supposed coverage offered by the facility by which you are employed. Also, you cannot assume that you will not find yourself in a legal situation where you are being blamed for something that you did (or didn’t) do. You absolutely have to do everything in your power to protect yourself through the best nursing malpractice insurance.
Common Misconceptions Of Nursing Malpractice Insurance
There are a number of myths and misconceptions that surround the issues of LPN malpractice insurance. These include the idea that if you get nursing malpractice insurance you stand a higher chance of being sued, that nurse malpractice insurance that covers your facility will automatically provide adequate coverage for you too, and that good nurses have nothing to fear so why should they get this malpractice insurance.
Making Yourself A Target
The first misconception is that if you get malpractice insurance you are opening yourself up for abuse and exploitation. This is simply not the case. There is no way for a potential fraudster or trickster to find out whether or not you have nurse malpractice insurance unless you tell them. Even when a case goes to court the existence of your malpractice insurance will only be made known after charges have been leveled against you. It is important that you ignore this myth and that you ensure that you have the best nursing malpractice insurance possible to cover you.
Many LPNs believe that they are covered under the malpractice insurance offered by the hospital or other health care institute for which they work. This is true in most cases but you need to have your own personal malpractice insurance as well because there may be limitations involved with your company’s insurance. They may not offer full coverage. And, if there is a conflict of interests between you and your employer, you may find that you are suddenly not covered at all. It is always better to improve your chances of coming out on top by having additional insurance. In addition to this there are some cases where your facility or employer will be able to give you adequate malpractice insurance coverage even if they wanted to. For example if you give medical advice to someone outside of the company for whom you work and the advice results in harm to that person you may be held liable. In this instance your company will not be able to cover you using the facility’s insurance as the event occurred outside of work. This will be discussed in more detail later, but it is another good reason to get private nurse malpractice insurance.
Many nurses feel that they do not need to get malpractice insurance because they are good nurses. Now this may be the case but mistakes are made by even the best doctors, so how can you assume that you will never make an error? Also there are many people out there who will sue you even if you have done nothing wrong because they think that you are an easy target to get money out of. This means that you need to have nursing malpractice insurance in place at all times as you never know when a situation like this may arise.
The Main Advantages of LPN Malpractice Insurance
There are a number of reasons why it is important that you get private LPN malpractice insurance. These reasons include the following:
- All health care professionals are open to being sued, so you cannot assume that it will never happen to you.
- The nurse malpractice insurance offered by your company may have a number of limitations and you may not be adequately covered by that insurance package.
- You may find that if there is a conflict of interests between you and your employer that the malpractice insurance you though they provided disappears very quickly.
- If you consult or lend assistance in settings outside the one in which you work then the nursing malpractice insurance offered by your company will simply not be able to cover you even if your facility would really like to have your back.
Even the most skilled doctors make mistakes and you are open to making very similar errors. This is why you need to make sure that you have adequate malpractice insurance. Nurses are sued all the time and it is not always because they are in the wrong.
The nursing malpractice insurance offered by your employer may have a number of limitations. When it comes to it, you will not be adequately covered. It is important to know what the possible limitations are, but it is equally important to have your own private LPN malpractice insurance to fall back on as your employer may not be 100% reliable in this regard.
If you work part time or if you have a part time job on top of your full time job you need to remember that it is highly unlikely that you will receive nurse malpractice insurance coverage from the company that you work at part time. This is a benefit that is usually only offered to full time employees. As a result, it is very important that you organize your own form of coverage.
You need to remember that being insured does not make you a target for people who live by making false claims. Another very important thing to remember is that having no insurance does not mean you won’t get sued so you cannot afford to take this risk.
In addition the cost of defending a malpractice case on your own is so high that you will be unlikely to pay for it all yourself. Lastly, without insurance, a plaintiff can go after your assets and take absolutely everything for you. Consequently you need to get malpractice insurance.
A Good Nurse Malpractice Insurance Plan?
When getting nurse malpractice insurance it is not enough to merely be covered. You need to be covered well and for all of the eventualities that may arise. It is worth your while to get one of the better plans out there. A good plan will include the following:
- Professional LPN malpractice insurance
- Public nursing malpractice insurance
- Coverage for errors and omissions, malpractice
- General legal expenses
- Claim-related expenses
- Legal defense expenses against abuse and so on
- Legal defense expenses against allegations of discrimination
If you already have a malpractice insurance policy then good for you, but you may want to re-examine the details contained in that policy and see whether or not you are getting the best coverage that is possible. The basics you should be covered for are the first three points mentioned above. The rest are not as essential but it is still better to have them all than to run into trouble at a later date and not have the financial means to get yourself out of it. Hence the importance of nursing malpractice insurance.
Eligibility For Insurance
In most cases you will need to provide proof that you are qualified in your field as well as in your country of residence and practice in order to be eligible for most malpractice insurance policies. It is also essential that you are able to provide proof that you have all the necessary professional training and education required to practice your profession as an LPN. You will also need to have a clean loss record and be able to provide proof that you have not been subject to previous claims made or filed against you. You also need to prove that you have no knowledge of the possibility of claims being filed against you in the future. These eligibility requirements for malpractice insurance may seem quite steep but in actual fact, if you consider the importance of what you will be covered for, they are actually quite reasonable. It is essential that you get nursing malpractice insurance so if you don’t meet these requirements you may need to look into those policies that are more expensive. If you are not eligible, you can still be covered but at higher premiums.
NSO: Your Resource For LPN Malpractice Insurance
The best place to apply for LPN malpractice insurance is at NSO. This website will offer you comprehensive nurse malpractice insurance that will suit all of your needs. Applying is easy. Once you have reached this page you will see that you need to fill in your state and the type of coverage you are looking for. This needs to be completely accurate as coverage options and insurance can differ quite drastically from state to state. You need to know the facts about your state in particular.
Of course there are also many other options available when it comes to actually getting malpractice insurance. NSO is one of the best but it is definitely in your best interests to shop around a bit before you make your final decision, regarding what kind of nurse malpractice insurance is best for you. If you take the time to do this, you will stand a far higher chance of getting coverage that suits you and that will provide you with adequate protection in the event that you do happen to run into trouble in the future. Although you are of course planning to avoid all situations that may require malpractice insurance, it is still better to be safe than sorry.
This information should help you to reassess your malpractice insurance situation. If you already have nurse malpractice insurance then that is great, but if you don’t, you need to look into getting it right away. The various situations that have been mentioned here can occur at any time and you simply cannot assume that you will continue to go through your daily tasks without incident. If you do already have insurance you should consider looking more closely at the policy you hold to see if it is in fact the best option available out there at the moment. If it isn’t, you should definitely look into getting something that is.