Which of the following could cause a nurse to be cited for malpractice?

• A. Refusing to give 60mg of morphine as ordered
• B. Giving prochlorperazine (Compazine) to a patient allergic to phenothiazines
• C. Dragging an injured motorist off the highway and causing further injury
• D. Informing a visitor about a patient's condition

Answer: (B)

The main idea here is patient safety and following the standard of care to prevent harm. Malpractice happens when a nurse fails to meet that standard and a patient is harmed as a result.

Giving a drug to a patient who is known to be allergic to phenothiazines breaches the standard of care. Before administering any medication, a nurse must verify allergies and contraindications on the patient’s chart and with the patient if needed. If prochlorperazine is given to someone with a phenothiazine allergy, a predictable and avoidable risk of a severe allergic reaction exists. That kind of preventable harm—due to not checking allergies and not ensuring the medication is safe for that patient—is the textbook example of malpractice: there was a duty to be careful, a breach of that duty, and resulting harm.

Consideration of the other scenarios helps reinforce why this is the best illustration of malpractice. Refusing to give a medication that was prescribed isn’t automatically malpractice; it depends on the clinical justification and safety considerations. Taking action that causes further injury to an injured person is clearly negligent, but it’s more about general negligence and triage decisions in an emergency. Sharing a patient’s information with a visitor violates confidentiality and can lead to disciplinary action and patient harm in terms of privacy, but malpractice centers on harm caused by professional care failures, with preventing unnecessary harm as a core standard.