REDUCE NURSING RISK

Improve Patient Safety by Increasing Nurses’ Competence in Identifying and Mitigating Risk

According to recent studies, 16% of medical malpractice cases involve nurses and of these, the average loss is $441,000. ELM’s Medical-Legal Education for Nurses library trains nurses to recognize, react to, and avoid risk in their day to day interactions. These courses develop critical thinking and decision-making skills by using real-life case studies to clarify proper conduct in questionable situations. Through case-based learning, nurses will become more skilled at identifying and mitigating risk in their clinical interactions, which will help them protect their patients, protect themselves, and protect their organization.

Impact:
Increase Patient Safety

• Raise awareness of risk to avoid patient injury
  
• Improve nurse recognition of risk and safety issuess

Reduce Compensable Harm

• Improve nurse-patient communication
  
• Increase nurses’ awareness of the impact oftheir actions
  
• Help nurses appreciate the scope of their
  responsibilities to patients and healthcare
  team members

Features:

• Case-based learning through situational analysis
  
• Real life scenarios drawn from the experiences of other healthcare institutions
  
• Targeted test feedback and supplemental materials reinforce learning principles in weak areas
  

This library is essential for:

• Hospitals with self-funded insurance programs (Trusts, Captives, RRGs)
  
• High-risk specialty groups
  
• Hospitals or medical groups in high-risk states/jurisdiction
  
• Health systems with diverse geography

Library Objectives:

Nurses will:

• Become aware of societal expectation for professional conduct
  
• Understand when exposure to liability is present in their clinical interactions
  
• Recognize and prevent the factors that may cause a risk to materialize
  
• Respond appropriately to high-risk situations
  
• Evaluate the medical-legal options available and compare their consequences

Library Outline:
This library is available as a suite or as individual courses:
The Basic Suite: Fundamental Issues
This suite of courses examines the fundamental risk issues that arise in all aspects of the nurse/patient, nurse/physician and nurse/nurse relationships. Courses include:

• Chain of Command
  
• Communication of Patient Info
  
• National Patient Safety Goals
  
• Team Building
  

Subject Matter Experts
Sal Fiscina, MD, JD, Course Director: Dr. Fiscina is a graduate of Harvard University, the University of Rochester Medical School, and The George Washington University National Law Center. For more than 30 years he has been a professorial lecturer in Legal Medicine and is currently on the adjunct faculty at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Georgetown University Law Center. He has authored several textbooks in law and medicine.
Dr. Fiscina is a former president of the American College of Legal Medicine and former Chairperson of the American Board of Legal Medicine.

About ELM
For more than 20 years, ELM has worked with hospitals, health systems, and insurance carriers to
educate healthcare providers about risk and patient safety. ELM programs are a tested and proven offering that provides organizations with a method to proactively address critical risk issues, and to easily monitor and document those efforts.