Chart — Professional Practice
Negligence, Malpractice & Torts Chart
The legal vocabulary of nursing in two tables: the four elements a malpractice claim must prove, and the torts — intentional and not — with the exact bedside examples exams reuse.
Educational use only. This is education, not legal advice — specific situations belong with your facility’s risk management and legal counsel. This material supports nursing education and exam review. It is not medical advice and is not a substitute for clinical judgment, institutional policy, or medical direction. Always follow facility protocols and current provider orders.
Malpractice — All Four Elements Required
| Element | Meaning | Looks Like |
|---|---|---|
| 1 · Duty | A nurse-patient relationship existed | You took the assignment or accepted the handoff |
| 2 · Breach | Care fell below what a reasonably prudent nurse would do | Med error, missed assessment, failure to escalate a deteriorating patient |
| 3 · Causation | The breach caused the injury | The missed neuro checks delayed stroke treatment — the delay caused the deficit |
| 4 · Damages | Actual harm resulted | Injury, prolonged stay, disability — no harm, no malpractice claim |
Miss any element and the claim fails: a serious medication error that caused no harm fails on damages; harm with no breach (a known, consented complication) fails on breach. Exams test this by presenting three elements and asking what’s missing.
The Torts
| Tort | Category | Definition | Nursing Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assault | Intentional | A threat creating fear of imminent harmful contact — no touching required | "Take this medication or I'll hold you down and give the injection" |
| Battery | Intentional | Harmful or offensive touching without consent | Procedure performed after refusal; surgery beyond the consented scope |
| False imprisonment | Intentional | Unjustified restriction of movement | Restraints without orders or clinical criteria; telling a competent patient they can't leave AMA |
| Invasion of privacy | Intentional / quasi-intentional | Intrusion into seclusion or disclosure of private information | Chart-surfing patients you don't care for; discussing a patient where others can hear |
| Defamation (slander / libel) | Quasi-intentional | False statement harming reputation — spoken (slander) or written (libel) | Charting 'patient is drug-seeking' without clinical basis; spreading a false claim about a colleague |
| Negligence | Unintentional | Failing to act as a reasonably prudent person would | Leaving a spill that causes a visitor's fall |
| Malpractice | Unintentional (professional) | Professional negligence — requires duty, breach, causation, and damages | Failure to monitor, failure to communicate changes, medication errors causing harm |
Exam Traps
- ✦Assault = threat, battery = touch. The threat alone, without contact, is already a tort.
- ✦Restraint questions: no order + no criteria = false imprisonment; a PRN restraint order is never valid.
- ✦Malpractice is negligence by a professional measured against the professional standard — what a reasonably prudent nurse would do.
- ✦Error without injury fails the damages element — discipline maybe, malpractice no.
- ✦Carrying out an obviously dangerous order makes the nurse liable too: clarify, refuse, escalate.
Related Resources
Standards & sources
Fact-checked Jun 21, 2026This page is written to align with ANA Code of Ethics & Scope/Standards of Practice · NCSBN · HIPAA (U.S. HHS). It is an educational summary, not a citation of any single document — always verify specific doses, values, and protocols against current guidelines and your facility policy. How we source content →