Negligence is defined as “a failure to behave with the level of care that someone of ordinary prudence would have exercised under the same circumstances” (Negligence). In order to state that negligence has occurred against an individual, five acts must have occurred. To begin, it must be proven that there was a duty or standard to care for an individual by a health care provider (Boone). The individual that was harmed should have been a patient under the direct care of the defendant. Secondly, the health care provider is said to have breached his duty, meaning he or she violated the standard of care (Boone). Every health care profession has a set of standards and a scope of practice that outlines what each professional can do. These are often created by the certifying boards that grant an individual his license to practice. This breach of duty is an omission of the proper acts to care for the individual (Owen). The third element of negligence is causation of harm to the patient. The patient is said to have been harmed in the action because the health care professional failed to follow through with the appropriate care, thus harming the patient. This relies on a cause-and-effect relationship, showing that because of the negligent act, the patient has been harmed. The fourth act is termed proximate cause and is described as the factual connection between the provider’s lack of care and the victim’s injury. The prosecutor aims to prove that the individual was only harmed because of the omission of acts by the health care provider. Finally, the last element of negligence is harm to the patient. It must be proven that actual physical harm was done to the patient. This physical harm includes physical injury, death, and property damage. The victim can recover monetary damages that are a result of the physical injury (Owen). The jury will then decide if the prosecutor has a justified case against the defendant and charges will be filed for negligent behavior.
References
Boone, T. (2007). Professionalization of Exercise Physiology (12th ed., Vol. 10). Lewiston, NY:
Edwin Mellen Press.
Negligence. (n.d.). Retrieved February 24, 2016, from https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/negligence
Owen, D. G. (2007). The Five Elements of Negligence. Hofstra Law Review, 35(4). Retrieved
