LWS101 Chap.8 Negligence and Patient Safety
Negligence and Patient Safety
A civil wrong
Negligence is a civil action in tort that lets people harmed by careless acts or omissions be compensated.
A claim needs a duty of care, a breach measured against what was reasonably expected, and harm caused by that breach.
Beyond existing patients
Nurses and hospitals owe a duty to their patients, and a duty can also arise from a close enough relationship, such as a second opinion or emergency treatment.
When harm occurs, the Code of Conduct requires open disclosure.
From the law to the ward
The overview ties negligence to patient safety rather than blame.
That framing helps your implementation heading: after reaching a legal conclusion, say what the nurse and the service should do next, such as reporting the incident, supporting open disclosure and reviewing the system that allowed the error, because those steps reduce the chance of the same harm recurring.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Negligence as a Civil Wrong
- 02
Duty of Care
- 03
Breach and Reasonableness
- 04
Harm Caused by the Breach
- 05
Open Disclosure
Worked example · free
Did a missed handover cause the harm?
- 1Duty: the nurse owed the patient a duty of care as an existing patient.
- 1Breach: a reasonable nurse would hand over a known allergy, so omitting it falls below the expected standard.
- 1Harm caused: the reaction followed from the drug the omission allowed to be given, so harm traces to the breach.
Key terms
- Tort
- A civil wrong for which the law provides a remedy, usually compensation.
- Breach of Duty
- Conduct that falls below what would reasonably be expected of the person who owes the duty.
- Damages
- The compensation a court can order for harm caused by negligence.
- Open Disclosure
- Honest, timely communication with a person harmed by healthcare about what happened, which Principle 2.4 requires.
- Proximity
- A close and direct relationship that can create a duty of care even without a prior treating relationship.
- Adverse Event
- An incident in which a person is harmed by healthcare, which Principle 2.4 says must be reported and disclosed openly.
- Reasonable Nurse Standard
- The level of care expected of a nurse in the circumstances, against which breach of duty is measured.
Negligence and Patient Safety FAQ
Can a nurse be negligent if no harm resulted?
Not in a negligence claim, because harm caused by the breach is one of the required elements. An error without injury can still raise workplace or disciplinary issues and must be reported, but it will not ground a civil claim for compensation.
Is a duty of care owed only to patients?
No. The Week 8 overview explains that a duty can arise without a previous relationship if the relationship is close enough, such as when giving a second opinion or treating someone in an emergency, and that courts have considered novel categories like a patient's sexual partner.
What must a nurse do after an adverse event?
Principle 2.4 asks nurses to report the incident, act immediately to protect the person, follow open disclosure and non-punitive incident management, ensure an appropriate team member explains and apologises, support the person, and seek advice from their employer, Ahpra or their insurer if unsure.
Does following a hospital policy protect a nurse from negligence?
Not automatically. The question in negligence is whether the nurse met the standard reasonably expected in the circumstances, so policy compliance is strong evidence of reasonable care but not a guarantee. If a policy step was skipped, that usually points toward breach, which is why documented, explained departures matter.
Exam move
Learn the chain as three questions and refuse to skip any of them: duty, breach, harm caused. For each tutorial scenario, write the breach sentence in two parts: what a reasonable nurse would have done, then what this nurse did. Add one sentence on open disclosure to every negligence answer, because the Code of Conduct turns the legal topic into a practical duty.
For every negligence answer, add one sentence on what the service should change to prevent a repeat. Collect two or three tutorial scenarios where one element fails and explain in a sentence which link broke, because spotting a missing element is as valuable as proving all three.
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