Judicialization of nursing malpractice in perioperative care, and delivery and birth assistance

Abstract

Objectives: to analyze the legal outcomes of malpractices in perioperative care, and delivery and birth assistance related to nursing, from the perspective of legal support for malpractice prevention. Methods: an exploratory, documentary, qualitative study, based on the cases tried by the Court of Justice of the State of Paraná, available online until April 2018. For the data analysis, we codified the processes and summarized the judicial outcome by the severity of the malpractice. Then, we recommended practices for the prevention of each case we presented. Results: among the thirteen processes analyzed, eight corresponded to the perioperative period (mainly electrocautery burn), and five to nursing care for delivery and birth. The severity of the cases was high (n=7). The judicial outcome of most cases (n=11) was the conviction of the institution. Conclusions: despite the multifactorial nature of the malpractices, the identified ones are preventable since there is a description of good practices.

Supervision of professional nursing practice in Brazil: a scoping review

“…Auditors, when verifying the management documents, protocols, duty rosters, records and nursing notes, staff sizing, implementation of the Systematization of Nursing Care (SNC) as well as all the factors that involve the work process, aim to ensure safe nursing care within legality, in addition to preventing failures. However, a study that analyzed the legal outcomes of errors in perioperative care and in delivery and birth care related to nursing identified lawsuits for errors related to the absence of nursing records and execution of procedures that are not the responsibility of the nursing team ( 3 , 19 ) .…”

“…During audits, the auditors focus on complying with legislation related to professional practice regulation ( 19 ) . Nursing team activities involve clinical practice activities and technical responsibility, which highlights the inseparability of care and management dimension of the nursing work process.…”

Fiscalização do exercício profissional da enfermagem no Brasil: revisão de escopo

“…Os fiscais, ao verificarem os documentos gerenciais, protocolos, escalas de serviço, registros e anotação de enfermagem, dimensionamento de pessoal, execução da Sistematização da Assistência de Enfermagem (SAE), bem como todos os fatores que envolvem o processo de trabalho, têm por objetivo assegurar assistência de enfermagem segura dentro da legalidade, além de prevenir falhas. Porém, estudo que analisou os desfechos jurídicos de erros no cuidado perioperatório e na assistência ao parto e nascimento relacionados à enfermagem identificou processos judiciais por erros referentes à ausência de registros de enfermagem e execução de procedimentos que não competem à equipe de enfermagem (3,19) .…”

“…Durante a realização das inspeções de fiscalização, o foco dos fiscais é no atendimento às legislações relacionadas à regulamentação da prática profissional (19) . As atividades da equipe de enfermagem envolvem atividades da prática clínica e de responsabilidade técnica, o que evidencia a indissociabilidade da dimensão assistencial e gerencial do processo de trabalho em enfermagem.…”