[A case study on duty of care in professional nursing].
BACKGROUND
Nurses are expected to discharge their duty of care effectively and professionally to prevent medical negligence. Only three articles have previously focused on medical negligence. Duty of care and medical negligence in nursing are topics that have been neglected in Taiwan.


OBJECTIVE
(1) Classify the duty of care of professional nurses; (2) Investigate the facts and disputes in the current case; (3) Clarify the legal issues involved with regard to duty-of-care violations in the current case; (4) Explore the causal relationships in a legal context between nurses' duty-of-care violations and patient harm / injury.


METHODS
Literature analysis and a case study are used to analyze Supreme Court Verdict No.5550 (2010).


RESULTS
Duty of care for nursing professionals may be classified into seven broad categories. Each category has its distinct correlatives. In nursing practice, every nursing behavior has a corresponding duty. In this case, the case study nurse did not discharge her obstetric professional duty and failed to inform the doctor in a timely manner. Negligence resulted in prenatal death and the case study nurse was found guilty.


CONCLUSIONS
In order to prevent committing a crime, nurses should gain a better understanding of their duty of care and adequately discharge these duties in daily practice.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taiwan, ROC. chlitina@gmail.com.
Hui-Man
HM
Huang
Chi-Chun
CC
Liao
D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008318:Malpractice / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D009726:Nurses / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D011247:Pregnancy
case study; duty of care; medical negligence; nursing professionals