Legal Problems Facing Nurse Practitioners

13. The purpose of this assignment is for students to identify potential legal risks providers face in the current health care environment.

1. Please identify and discuss existing or potential areas of legal/litigation risk for a new graduate (support with at least 2 references).

2. Discuss ways the new graduate APRN can avoid these pitfalls.

There are more than 234,000 registered nurse practitioners (NPs) within the United States, according to the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. As the process to provide healthcare evolved and improved, more Americans are turning to nurses for the majority of their needs and they are a vital element of the current healthcare system. Based on the nurse practitioner claim Report most claims made against nurse practitioners–and especially recent graduates — were the result of mistakes in the fundamentals of the diagnosis of drug dependence, prescriptions for drugs or treatment and coordination (Gonzalez and Gigli 2021). Most of the claims were those that involved inappropriate prescribing or administration of controlled substances, as well as inability to recognize. These allegations show nurses must immediately review, monitor the findings of the appropriate tests and consultations and thoroughly evaluate every patient prior to prescribing medications. Cont…