Background and Objective: Due to the constant exposure of nurses, especially emergency department (ED) nurses to potential litigations in daily practice, they perceive their work environment to be threatening from a legal perspective, which can have a negative impact on this population, as well as nursing care and the healthcare system. This paper was extracted from a more extensive study to explore the destructive consequences of ED nurses’ exposure to potential legal issues.
Methods: This qualitative study was conducted in the emergency departments of selected hospitals in Tehran, Iran during 2019-2021. The data collected from six observations (observer as participant) and in-depth semi-structured interviews (with 12 nurses, one head nurse, one ED physician, and two supervisors) were analyzed based on Strauss and Corbin’s grounded theory approach (2008).
Findings: Based on the analysis of collected data, three subcategories of “Withdrawal from clinical care”, “weakening of nurse’s status”, and “deviation of care” emerged as the negative consequences of ED nurses’ exposure to potential legal issues; these three subcategories formed the main category of “marginalization of care”.
Conclusion: The emerging prominence of legal issues and processes in nursing care has adversely affected the nurses’ professional performance and diverted their attention from their main responsibilities. Therefore, it is essential for healthcare managers and policymakers, as well as legislators, to pay particular attention to potential litigations for developing a sense of legal security in nurses, besides promoting patient safety and quality of care
