In 2018, twenty-four-year-old Hannah Catton had symptoms of bloating, extreme abdominal pain, multiple urinary tract infections, significant fatigue, and irregular menstrual cycles. For three years, she went to numerous physicians across Australia and the United Kingdom. Every doctor sent her away, claiming the symptoms were due to stress or hormonal changes. After years of terrible and worsening pain, an ovarian tumor the size of a volleyball was discovered that needed immediate surgery. Catton felt she “knew something was wrong” way before any doctor was ready to believe her.
Read MoreAs a result of a chronic physician shortage, especially in rural areas, the medical landscape is drastically changing to include more non-physician healthcare providers. [1] This demand for additional medical professionals allows Advanced Practitioner Registered Nurses (APRNs) — a class of registered nurses with additional graduate-level training — increased prescriptive and decision-making authority over patients’ health care than traditional registered nurses. This phenomenon introduces new challenges in the realm of medical malpractice, accountability, and scrutiny that has been, for decades, primarily focused on physicians. In considering questions of accountability for erroneous medical decision-making, a substantive increase in medical authority and jurisdiction over patients’ health needs to be logically accompanied by an increase in legal scrutiny.
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