Compassionate Nursing Negligence Attorneys Fighting for Your Rights

A strong advocate for the injured in Nashville, Hendersonville and Knoxville

Nurses are the hardest working individuals in the health care system. Their diligent, compassionate care saves lives and helps those who are dealing with injury and illness get through fearful and challenging times. Nurses are also incredibly overworked. They are tasked with providing care in stressful and chaotic environments. The long, strenuous hours that they work creates fatigue, which leads to mistakes. When those mistakes harm their patients, this becomes nursing malpractice.

At the Rocky McElhaney Law Firm, we have helped countless clients in Nashville, Hendersonville and Knoxville and beyond who were injured by the negligence of a nurse charged with their care. We will fight for your right to compensation for your injuries.

What are the elements of nursing negligence?

Both nurses and doctors have strict standards and rules that govern the important work they do each day to safeguard the health and wellness of their patients. These standards of care apply to all aspects of the profession and they are adhered to with the knowledge that any departure from those standards could put their patient's lives in danger.

There are four essential elements to nursing negligence or malpractice:

1. Duty
2. Breach of duty
3. Causation
4. Injury

All four of these elements must be in place in order for negligence to have occurred. Duty is already established if the nurse was an employee or contractor at the hospital and assigned to the work they were doing. Breach of that duty includes failure to follow the standard nursing guidelines, policies and procedures. Causation describes the act that caused the injury or harm, and what the nurse did as a consequence of the initial error that was not part of the accepted standard of care. The injury or harm must have been directly caused by the negligent action (or failure to act) on the part of the nurse.