Legal Risks In Everyday Practice
Avoiding Legal Peril in Midwifery Practice
These articles are intended to inform best practices for certified nurse-midwives/certified midwives and the unique liability challenges they face in clinical practice. The information provided will include, but is not limited to, standards of practice, midwifery liability challenges, hospital systems failures, professional conduct, avoiding litigation, cultures of care in corporate healthcare systems, and various legal considerations associated with safe practice.
Improving CNM Profile With Legal Profession
Responsible certified nurse-midwife (CNM)/certified midwife (CM) practice, and optimal legal representation of midwives, requires realistic information pertaining to the profession of midwifery, specific standards of practice for various midwifery designations, and how specific standards guide practice. Attorneys specialising in medical negligence need to understand the potential liability issues unique to the practice of CNMs/CMs, including a basic familiarity with the practices of other midwifery classifications in the community. Most people cannot distinguish individual midwifery practices. This lack of knowledge matters, especially for women selecting a maternity care provider.
Negative attitudes of hospital administrations, misinformed medical and legal providers, corporate healthcare culture, and knowledge deficits within society have allowed the professional profiles of all types of midwives to suffer. Practising midwives deserve to understand how midwifery is currently viewed in the context of malpractice litigation. Consumers of midwifery care need to understand the education, background, and legislative boundaries that apply to different types of midwives.
Midwifery Practice Environments and Legal Risk
The information provided will primarily focus on Certified Nurse-Midwife/Certified Midwife working environments that harbour overt and hidden legal risks. Certified Nurse-Midwifery practice is changing. In hospital corporate practice, role expectations for CNMs have become more fluid and legally precarious. Many attorneys involved in midwifery malpractice litigation often lack a basic understanding of the diversity of practice among defendant midwives. This could diminish the effectiveness of legal representation in medical negligence cases. Attorneys, physicians, and midwives need awareness of the liability burdens unique to each midwife designation and the environments in which they work. In order to establish whether a midwife has met or breached an applicable standard of care in a negligence lawsuit, attorneys can only effectively prosecute or defend their clients if there is a basic comprehension of the character and foundation of the individual midwifery practice and the specific standards of care which apply.