Malpractice insurance for US electives

[FaddyAcids]

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I wanted to know the main purpose of malpractice insurance for foreign students doing clinicals in the US?? get accused of malpractice?? Since students do not participate in dangerous procedures during electives I guess?? So whats that for??

 

[JeffLebowski]

I wanted to know the main purpose of malpractice insurance for foreign students doing clinicals in the US?? get accused of malpractice?? Since students do not participate in dangerous procedures during electives I guess?? So whats that for??

Huh? The "main purpose" of malpractice insurance is to cover you in case you are named in a malpractice suit and become required to compensate someone. Malpractice is a civil suit, which basically requires no wrongdoing per se, but rather a jury's opinion that you are responsible (liable) for harm inflicted on another. As I understand it, students are rarely named in lawsuits, and even more rarely held liable. But that's why it's so cheap. In the U.S., this insurance is provided by the student's medical school.

 

[FaddyAcids]

I understand but what is exactly meant by students malpractice?? In other words, what could be done by students during rotations that will let a patient accuse them?? I'm an international student and yet to start my first elective in couple of weeks so I'm not really familiar with that..

Thanks.

 

[JeffLebowski]

I understand but what is exactly meant by students malpractice?? In other words, what could be done by students during rotations that will let a patient accuse them?? I'm an international student and yet to start my first elective in couple of weeks so I'm not really familiar with that..

Thanks.

I can't comment on what's the most common reason to get sued, but just for clarification, anyone can bring a civil suit against anyone else, as long as there's some basis for the suit. So yes, if you screw something up big time, you could be held liable. However, as I said I think it's pretty exceedingly rare for a medical student to be ultimately held responsible for damages, since we are considered trainees under supervision and thus I think our residents & attendings have more to fear from our mistakes than we do.

But the short answer is I don't know. Maybe do a few google searches, I'd be interested to hear some objective data on this.

 

[Tired]

I understand but what is exactly meant by students malpractice?? In other words, what could be done by students during rotations that will let a patient accuse them?? I'm an international student and yet to start my first elective in couple of weeks so I'm not really familiar with that..

Thanks.

I'm going to gather by your post that you're in one of those countries where medical students are basically "observers" on rotations.

In the U.S. students routinely participate in procedures that are potentially dangerous/deadly. Surgery, chest tubs, thoracentesis, lines, etc, med students do all those things. If you come here on a rotation, you will be expected to learn these things, depending on the specialty you rotate with.

So yes, you need the insurance.