Law and Professional Practice Accountability and Implications

It seems that every week there are new examples of hospital patients or their families seeking legal redress against hospital trusts and healthcare practitioners for some kind of injury. While an inadequate standard of care cannot be condoned, healthcare professionals in the perioperative setting need to know what is meant by an ‘adequate standard’ and what the implications of failing to meet this standard might be for them. In this article (adapted from a course assignment for the BSc in Professional Practice for Nurses), Suzanne Hughes looks at the meaning of the term ‘accountability’ and at the legal and professional implications for the practitioner of failing to achieve the accepted standard.