Nurses are the heart of patient care. They are with patients far more than any physician—monitoring vital signs, giving medications, watching for the first signs that something is going wrong, and serving as the crucial link between a patient and the rest of the medical team. When nurses do their jobs well, they catch problems early and save lives. But when nursing care falls short, the patients who depend on that vigilance most can suffer serious, preventable harm.
At Gilman & Bedigian, we help patients and families who have been injured by nursing negligence understand what happened and hold the responsible parties accountable. If you suspect that a nurse's mistake—or a hospital's failure to provide enough qualified nurses—caused harm to you or someone you love, we are here to listen and to help.
You deserve answers, and getting them costs you nothing. Call 1-800-529-6162 (phones answered 24/7) or request a free, confidential case review online. There is no fee unless we win your case.
What Is Nursing Negligence?
Nursing negligence occurs when a nurse fails to provide the level of care that a reasonably careful nurse would provide under similar circumstances, and that failure causes harm to a patient.
Nurses are licensed professionals held to their own standard of care—the accepted practices, training, and judgment expected of a competent nurse in the same role. This standard is distinct from a physician's, and it applies to registered nurses (RNs), licensed practical nurses (LPNs), nurse practitioners, and other nursing staff. When a nurse's conduct falls below that standard and a patient is injured as a result, it can form the basis of a medical malpractice claim.
It is important to understand that nursing negligence is not about blaming individuals for an impossible job. Nurses are often stretched thin by understaffing, excessive patient loads, and demanding conditions. In many cases, the deeper cause of nursing negligence is a hospital's decision to operate with too few nurses or inadequate support—which is why both the individual nurse and the hospital may share responsibility.
Common Examples of Nursing Negligence
Nursing touches nearly every aspect of a patient's care, so negligence can take many forms. Some of the most common include:
Medication errors
Nurses are typically the last line of defense before a medication reaches a patient. Errors in the dose, drug, route, timing, or patient can cause serious harm—especially with high-risk medications like blood thinners, insulin, and opioids.
Failure to monitor and assess
Nurses are responsible for regularly checking patients and recognizing changes in their condition. Failing to take vital signs, missing abnormal readings, or not recognizing the early signs of deterioration can allow a treatable problem to become a crisis.
Failure to escalate or notify a physician
When a patient's condition worsens, a nurse must act—and that often means promptly notifying a physician and, if necessary, going up the chain of command. Failing to escalate a deteriorating patient is one of the most consequential nursing errors.
Falls and inadequate safety precautions
Vulnerable patients can suffer serious injuries from preventable falls when nurses do not assess fall risk or implement appropriate precautions.
Pressure injuries (bedsores)
Immobile patients require regular repositioning and skin care. Severe, preventable pressure ulcers can develop—and become dangerously infected—when nursing care is inadequate.
Infection-control failures
Lapses in hand hygiene, sterile technique, and the care of IV lines and catheters can expose patients to serious infections.
Documentation and communication failures
Inaccurate charting and breakdowns in handoff communication between shifts and providers can lead to missed treatments, duplicated medications, and dangerous gaps in care.
Improper use of equipment
Errors in setting up or monitoring IV pumps, feeding tubes, and other equipment can directly harm patients.
If any of these failures may have affected your care, an experienced attorney can review the records at no cost. Call 1-800-529-6162 (answered 24/7) or request a free case review.
The Nursing Standard of Care: The "Rights" of Safe Practice
What sets nursing negligence cases apart is that nursing has its own well-defined safety practices—and a nurse's failure to follow them can be strong evidence that the standard of care was not met. Understanding a few of these concepts helps explain how these cases work.
The "rights" of medication administration. Nurses are trained to verify a set of safety checks before giving any medication—commonly described as the right patient, right drug, right dose, right route, and right time, with additional checks for documentation and the patient's response. When a medication error occurs, the question is often which of these checks was skipped.
SBAR and communication. Nurses are taught structured methods for communicating critical information to physicians—often summarized as Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation. When a nurse fails to clearly convey a patient's deterioration, the breakdown can be traced to a failure of this kind of communication.
The chain of command. When a nurse believes a patient is in danger and a physician is not responding appropriately, the nurse is expected to escalate the concern up the chain of command. A nurse who recognizes a problem but does not persist in getting help may have breached the standard of care.
Failure to rescue. This term describes a situation where staff did not recognize and respond to signs of a patient's decline in time to prevent serious harm. It is frequently linked to inadequate monitoring and to dangerous nurse-to-patient ratios.
When we investigate a nursing negligence case, we work with qualified nursing experts who can explain exactly how these standards applied to your situation and where they may have broken down.
Who May Be Responsible for Nursing Negligence?
Determining responsibility in a nursing negligence case requires looking beyond the individual at the bedside. Depending on the facts, accountable parties may include:
- The individual nurse, whose conduct fell below the nursing standard of care.
- The hospital or healthcare facility, which is generally responsible for the conduct of its employed nurses and for its own institutional failures—such as chronic understaffing, inadequate training, or unsafe policies.
- Nurse staffing agencies, which supply many hospitals with travel and contract nurses.
- Supervisors and nurse managers, where inadequate supervision contributed to the harm.
Understaffing deserves special mention. When a hospital assigns a nurse too many patients to safely manage, errors become predictable rather than exceptional. In those cases, the institution's staffing decisions may be a central part of the claim—not just the conduct of an overwhelmed individual.
Sorting out who is responsible is our job, not yours. Let our team review your case at no cost. Call 1-800-529-6162 or contact us online.
The Consequences of Nursing Negligence
Because nurses are responsible for so much of a patient's moment-to-moment safety, nursing errors can lead to severe and lasting harm, including:
- Medication overdoses and adverse drug events, sometimes fatal.
- Sepsis and serious infections, from lapses in infection control or unrecognized deterioration.
- Brain injury or organ damage, when a declining patient is not rescued in time.
- Serious fall injuries, including fractures and head trauma.
- Severe, infected pressure injuries.
- Additional surgeries, prolonged hospitalization, and long-term care needs.
- Lost income and reduced earning capacity.
- Wrongful death, when a preventable nursing failure proves fatal.
These outcomes ripple far beyond the hospital, reshaping how families live, work, and care for one another. We approach every case with that human reality in mind.
How a Nursing Negligence Claim Is Investigated
A credible claim rests on evidence, not assumptions. When you bring a potential nursing negligence case to us, the investigation focuses on the core elements of any malpractice claim:
Duty of care. The nurse and facility owed the patient a duty to provide competent care meeting accepted nursing standards.
Breach of the standard of care. We work with qualified nursing experts to evaluate whether the care fell below what a reasonably careful nurse would have provided. Because nursing has its own standards, nursing experts—not just physicians—are often essential.
Causation. We must connect the breach to the patient's harm, showing that competent nursing care would likely have prevented the injury.
Damages. We document the full scope of harm—medical, financial, physical, and emotional.
The medical record is central, with particular attention to the nursing notes, medication administration records, vital-sign flow sheets, and the timeline of communications with physicians. Staffing records can be critical in understaffing cases. The right experts then help establish what should have happened and how the failure changed the outcome.
Compensation in a Nursing Negligence Case
No recovery can undo a serious injury, but compensation can ease the financial burden and provide accountability. Available damages may include past and future medical expenses, future and long-term care costs, lost income and lost earning capacity, pain and suffering, loss of companionship and support for family members, and—where a patient has died—wrongful death damages including funeral expenses, lost financial support, and the loss of a loved one's guidance and companionship.
Some states cap certain categories of damages or impose special procedural requirements in malpractice cases. We will explain how the law in your jurisdiction applies to your situation.
Wondering what your family may be entitled to recover? A free case review can give you real answers. Call 1-800-529-6162 or contact us.
Time Limits for Filing a Nursing Negligence Claim
Every state sets a statute of limitations for medical malpractice claims, and these deadlines vary widely. The time you have can depend on when the injury occurred or was discovered, whether the patient is a minor, and whether a publicly owned hospital is involved—government facilities often carry shorter deadlines and special notice requirements. Because missing a deadline can permanently bar your claim, it is best to consult an attorney as soon as you suspect something went wrong. Acting early also helps preserve nursing records and staffing data that can be difficult to obtain later.
What to Do If You Suspect Nursing Negligence
If you believe nursing errors harmed you or someone you love, a few steps can help protect your health and your rights: prioritize medical care and safety; request the complete medical records, including nursing notes and medication records; write down names, times, and what you observed while the details are fresh; keep related paperwork such as bills and discharge instructions; be cautious about signing releases or accepting quick settlement offers; and consult an experienced medical malpractice attorney, which often costs nothing for an initial review.
Why Families Trust Gilman & Bedigian
Nursing negligence cases require a firm that understands both the medicine and the realities of hospital care—and that is willing to stand up to hospitals and their insurers. Gilman & Bedigian is a team of experienced trial attorneys, founded by Charles Gilman and Briggs Bedigian, who focus on medical malpractice and catastrophic injury. We are nationally recognized advocates for injured patients and families, committed to accountability and to the patient safety that protects others.
Our results reflect that commitment. We have recovered more than $800 million for injured patients and families, including some of the largest medical malpractice and birth injury verdicts in Maryland and Pennsylvania history—among them a $182 million verdict (the largest medical malpractice verdict in Pennsylvania history) and a $55 million verdict against Johns Hopkins Hospital. Our work has been recognized by the American Association for Justice, Super Lawyers, and an A-rating from the Better Business Bureau, and we have been featured by ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome; each case is different and must be evaluated on its own facts.
We prepare every case as if it will go to trial and are willing to take complex cases before a jury when that is what justice requires—a reputation that matters when an insurer decides whether to settle fairly. Just as important, we treat the people we represent with compassion, explain everything in plain language, and return calls promptly. With offices in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Texas, we handle serious cases nationwide in cooperation with local counsel. And because we work on a contingency-fee basis, there is no fee unless we win your case.
Speak directly with an experienced medical malpractice attorney today. Call 1-800-529-6162 (answered 24/7) or request a free, confidential case review. You can also review our case results and client testimonials.
Frequently Asked Questions About Nursing Negligence
Can a nurse be personally sued for malpractice?
Yes. Nurses are licensed professionals held to a nursing standard of care, and they can be named in a malpractice claim. In practice, the hospital that employs the nurse is also frequently responsible, both for the nurse's conduct and for institutional failures like understaffing.
Is the hospital responsible for a nurse's mistake?
Often, yes. Under long-standing legal principles, an employer is generally responsible for the negligent acts of its employees committed within the scope of their work. A hospital may also bear direct responsibility for its own failures, such as assigning unsafe patient loads. Identifying every responsible party is part of the investigation.
What is the nursing standard of care?
It is the level of skill, knowledge, and attentiveness that a reasonably careful nurse would use in the same role and circumstances. It is distinct from a physician's standard, which is why nursing experts are often essential to these cases.
Can understaffing be the basis of a claim?
It can be an important part of one. When a hospital operates with dangerously few nurses and that decision leads to missed monitoring or delayed care, the institution's staffing choices may be central to the claim—not just the conduct of an overwhelmed nurse.
What are the most common nursing errors?
Common errors include medication mistakes, failure to monitor and recognize deterioration, failure to escalate to a physician, preventable falls, pressure injuries, and infection-control lapses. Many cases involve more than one.
How long do I have to file a nursing negligence claim?
It depends on your state's statute of limitations and the facts of your case, and deadlines can be shorter for claims against public hospitals. Because missing the deadline can end your claim, it's best to consult an attorney promptly.
How much does it cost to hire a nursing negligence lawyer?
Gilman & Bedigian handles these cases on a contingency-fee basis. There are no upfront costs, and you owe no attorney's fee unless we win your case. Your initial consultation is free and confidential.
My loved one died after a nursing error. What can I do?
You may be able to bring a wrongful death claim on behalf of your family. These claims can address medical and funeral expenses, lost financial support, and the loss of your loved one's companionship and guidance. We handle these cases with care and sensitivity.
You Trusted Them With Your Care. We Can Help You Hold Them Accountable.
When you or someone you love is in the hospital, you trust the nursing staff to watch closely, act quickly, and keep you safe. When that trust is broken and a preventable injury follows, you deserve to understand what happened—and whether it could have been avoided.
Gilman & Bedigian is here to help you find those answers. We will review the records, consult qualified nursing and medical experts, and tell you honestly whether we believe negligence played a role. There is no cost and no obligation to begin, and there is never any pressure.
Speak With a Medical Malpractice Attorney Today
- Free, confidential consultation
- Free case review by an experienced medical malpractice attorney
- Direct access to attorneys who handle complex, catastrophic-injury cases
- No fee unless we win your case
If you believe nursing negligence harmed you or someone you love, contact Gilman & Bedigian. Call 1-800-529-6162 (answered 24/7) or request your free consultation. We are ready to listen.
