Individual malpractice insurance decisions revisited

Nurses' professional obligations to their patients include financial accountability. Whether nurses best provide this through self-insurance, coverage by an employer's insurance policy, or by purchase of an individual policy remains a personal decision. Changes in law and the health care market, however, should prompt a revisiting of this decision because the relative costs and benefits of each option may have changed. The pace of these changes, the unexpected consequences of some of the legal changes, and the individual differences in each nurse's situation may require seeking legal counsel to identify and evaluate the risk/benefits in that situation. The cost of that counsel may well exceed the cost of the policy premium.