Legal Nursing

Legal nursing
Students Name
Professor’s Name
Course Title
Date
• Identify the research problem.
Negligence claims against nursing homes was a significant problem between 1998 and 2010 when the study was conducted. The researchers wanted to determine the effects of litigation on healthcare quality.
• Identify the research purpose.
To investigate whether litigation increases or decreases health care quality
• Summarize the review of the literature.
The tort system is created to deter people from repeating certain behaviors. It is therefore established to better the quality and safety of healthcare. However, the effectiveness of the tort system is debatable. Past studies that model the impact of negligence litigation were ecologic.
• Identify the nursing framework.
The article did not mention any nursing framework used.
• Identify the research questions and hypotheses.
Hypothesis: litigation leads to improved health quality
Research question: What is the effect of litigation costs on the quality of care delivered in nursing homes?
• Identify the variables.
Independent variable: litigation
Dependent variable: healthcare quality
• Identify and discuss the appropriateness of the design.
A longitudinal research design was used. It was appropriate as the data results needed to be matched to determine their similarity and differences.
• Discuss the validity of the research.
The research was vital since litigation claims have increased in the recent days. Nursing homes have been victims of this trend since they are required to compensate the victims highly.

The goal of negligence litigation was to prevent negligence in hospitals. However, those hospitals that have paid heavy fines do not necessarily provide quality health care.
• Discuss the efficacy of the study. Did it resolve the question?
The study was effective in answering the question. It proved that negligence litigation does not improve the quality of care.
• Discuss the legal and ethical issues of the study. Include the use of human subjects and their protection.
The study used secondary data, and therefore there were no study participants used. Therefore, the legal and ethical issues in the study were not discussed in the article.
• Describe any cultural aspects of the study.
There were no cultural aspects in the study
• Describe the sample.
The total number of plaintiff claims was 6471 while the nursing homes were 1514.
• Describe the procedures.
The researchers analyzed data that came from two sources which were the minimum data set (MDS) facility-level quality indicator/quality measure system and the online survey, certification, and Reporting (OSCAR) system. The first in the research was to select the MDS variables followed by measures of interest. They also selected the OSCAR variables and measures of interest. The researchers also created two analytical data sets based on the longitudinal data (jörkstén et al., 2016).
• Summarize the results.
The tort litigation is expected to lead to quality and safety of healthcare. However, the study found no evidence of deterrence as a result of the negligence litigation. Tort litigation does not improve health care quality.
• Describe how the results of the research may impact future nursing practice.
Reforms in tort litigation are required to bring about changes that would ensure that litigation serves its primary purpose which is compensation. Litigation should not be about improving health care quality since other measures can be used.
• Apply the research to the student’s nursing practice.
Tort litigation in nursing homes has not been effective in trying to improve healthcare. I would advocate for tort litigation to serve its main purpose of litigation rather than focusing on deterrence since it is not effective.
References
jörkstén, K. S., Bergqvist, M., Andersén-Karlsson, E., Benson, L., & Ulfvarson, J. (2016). Medication errors as malpractice-a qualitative content analysis of 585 medication errors by nurses in Sweden. BMC health services research, 16(1), 431. doi:10.1186/s12913-016-1695-9