Should medical students be responsible for malpractice?

[MSRM]

I read this recent article about medical students soon being liable for malpractice?

What do you feel about that. Should they?

here is the article http://www.phoenixazpersonalinjurya...dents-be-liable-for-medical-malpractice.shtml

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[docB]

They already are.

You know your article is on a PI lawyer site?

 

[cpants]

Medical students' liability is pretty limited, but it shouldn't be zero. There are many situations where we do have a duty to act, and our failure to act or inappropriate action could cause injury to patients.

 

[dpmd]

Anytime a medical student acts with appropriate supervision, following instructions, and without malicious intent they should have zero liability. If those actions result in harm, the supervising party should certainly be held liable. I actually kinda feel the same should apply to residents (for example, when scrubbed with an attending who directs them to cut here and "here" turns out to be the CBD), except that residents also act on their own with more remote supervision so should face some responsibility for those kind of decisions. If a student does something to a patient without supervision and causes harm, then they should have civil liability and potentially criminal charges. I'm not talking about the student that gets told to suture something up with the resident walking away-not necessarily supervision, but certainly they were following instructions. I'm thinking more along the lines of a student seeing a patient and deciding to d/c the chest tube without running it past anyone-or perhaps after being told the patient isn't ready for that yet (which we had a student actually attempt once but they were caught by someone who stopped them). In that sort of situation it is actually unfair for the resident or attending to be named, but I'm sure they still would be since that is the way things work.

 

[Lokhtar]

If an attending tells you to "Do x, here." And you do it. It'd be ridiculous to be named.

If you're a 3rd year, are you really going to tell the attending 'No' even if are unsure if it's appropriate. I mean, what do you know?

 

[docB]

Med students and (much more commonly residents) do get named in suits. For those of you who don't know how medical malpractice works when a suit gets filed the plaintiff's lawyer will name everyone whose name appears in the chart. Attendings, residents, med students, nurses, techs, housekeepers, etc. It's important to remember that lawsuits are not about anything but money, and naming everyone gives the plaintiff's lawyer the best chance of making the most cash. Usually the medstudents get dropped because the goal is to get to the attending's insurance, but if a student made an error they have insurance too and the lawyer will be happy to take their money just the same. In fact if a student screwed something up the lawyer can get both the student and the attending, the student for the error and the attending for failure to supervise the student. That's known as a cha-cha-ching.