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The clinical record: recognizing its value in litigation.

Dolores Marsh Alford
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Abstract

Documenting completely and accurately is standard nursing practice, yet many nurses do not seem to understand that proper documentation is crucial to the communication and critical decision-making necessary to meet patients' needs. In fact, failure to document can have lethal consequences. Documentation of intake and output (I & O) is used here as an example of the evidence attorneys and nurse experts look for in the clinical record of elders. From exhibits of I & O records, juries can determine if nurses collected sufficient data for appropriate decision-making to protect the patient from harm. Readers are invited to test themselves to determine if their own I & O documentation meets acceptable standards of nursing practice. If readers find areas for improvement, self-study or group in-services can be held to improve the documentation and use of these data.

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BenchmarkingDocumentationExpert TestimonyHumansMalpracticeNursing RecordsUnited StatesJournal Article

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Dolores Marsh Alford. The clinical record: recognizing its value in litigation.. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0197-4572(03)00215-5

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