Legal Nurse Consultant Discusses Bed Sores

Can a legal nurse consultant testify in a medical malpractice case about what caused pressure sores on a paralyzed patient?

In general, in medical malpractice cases involving claims of negligence, a plaintiff must prove that the failure of medical staff to meet the appropriate standard of care caused the patient’s injuries. A plaintiff must generally use a medical expert to testify about how a medical staff’s deviance from the appropriate standard of care caused injuries to them.

In most cases, it has been held that only physicians are qualified to testify about causation in medical malpractice cases. Even in cases where a nurse’s conduct has fallen below the appropriate standard of care and this has injured a patient, it is usually only a doctor who is held qualified to testify as to whether the nurse’s conduct was negligent in a medical malpractice case. This general rule had been relaxed recently and several cases have allowed legal nurse consultants to testify as to whether a nurse’s conduct has fallen below the appropriate standard of care in a medical malpractice case. If a legal nurse consultant is qualified through their education and experience, they may be found qualified to testify as a medical expert in a medical malpractice case. Cases involving bed sores are considered special ones because nurses (rather than physicians) typically identify and care for this condition. Since bed sores are primarily an issue that nurses have unique expertise in, a legal nurse consultant is usually held to qualify as a medical expert who can testify about the issue of what caused bed sores in a medical malpractice case.

In this case, the legal nurse consultant can probably testify about whether the staff at the rehabilitation center failed to meet the proper standard of care because the case involves pressures sores and the legal nurse consultant would have the education and training to testify about the medical cause of the sores.