title: Care pathways: a legal sword or shield?
abstract: District nurses use care pathways to ensure the efficient delivery of evidence-based high quality care. However, many health professionals, including district nurses have expressed concern that comparing the actual care delivered with a care pathway makes them more susceptible to litigation should the patient suffer harm during the course of treatment. In this article Richard Griffith considers the legal implications of care pathways.
authors.affiliation: School of Health Science, Swansea University. richard.griffith@swan.ac.uk
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Griffith
mesh_terms: D019985:Benchmarking / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D019091:Critical Pathways / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D019983:Guideline Adherence / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006801:Humans; D016365:Liability, Legal; D008318:Malpractice / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D024802:Nurse's Role; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011637:Public Health Nursing / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D012308:Risk Management / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006113:United Kingdom