When you are accepted into nursing school the school that you are attending will have insurance, and so will the facilities where you will do your clinicals. So why, when you’re a starving student, would you want to consider parting with what little money you have to pay for your own nursing student insurance as well?
Because this is America, and anyone can sue anybody for anything! This doesn’t mean that they’ll win, but it means that the person being sued has to undergo the stress and expense of a lawsuit. No matter how careful you are, no matter how responsible you are, if you are carrying out your duties as a student nurse and something goes wrong – you can be sued.
Now, if you are named as a party in a lawsuit for something that happens while you are a nursing student, you should be covered by either your school, or the facility that you are in, or both. The key phrase there is, “you should be covered.” What if the school or the facility’s interpretation of the facts is different than what you believe is true? What if you feel that they are not defending you to the extent that they should?
Also keep in mind that in many cases the insurance offered by your school and the facilities you do your clinicals may have limits of coverage that are shared with many others. This will reduce the coverage offered to you individually. Additionally, these insurance policies usually only cover you while you are a nursing student. A disgruntled patient could file a lawsuit months after an actual incident when you aren’t even a nursing student anymore (but maybe you were when the incident occurred). Sadly, you could be part of the lawsuit and have no coverage. What would you do then?
Self-insuring can provide added protection and peace of mind. Nurses Service Organization is an insurance organization that comes highly recommended and is used by many nurses throughout their career. At the time of this article they charge only $29 per year for nursing student insurance. Regardless of where you get coverage, you’d be wise to spend the few extra dollars every year to protect yourself from any lawsuits and to give you total peace of mind.
