Professional responsibility in obstetric-gynecological nursing: Update of the case law of the High Court of Justice of Andalusia (Spain)

Abstract

Background Obstetric-Gynecological Nursing is articulated as one of the specialities with the greatest responsibility in the field of health care, due to the involvement of being in care not only for the life of the pregnant woman, but also for the future neonate. Settling down as a profession with a high number of legal claims, there are not many studies in Spain on legal claims in the field of Nursing in general, and Obstetric-Gynecological Nursing in particular. Methods Retrospective analysis of judgments against midwives in the period from 2010 to the present through the CENDOJ database, with the aim of searching for criminal, civil and contentious-administrative judgments. Quality was assessed using the STROBE critical appraisal tool for observational studies. Results 19 judgments were selected from the 197 found that were related to the objective of the study. Fifty-three percent of the judgment analyzed resulted in acquittals, while the remaining 47% were upheld to varying degrees. Most of them were motivated damage to the newborn (79%), processed entirely through the contentious-administrative route. Conclusions Most of the legal claims in the field of Obstetric-Gynecological Nursing are related to adverse events with fetal damage, most of them receiving higher monetary compensation as the contentious-administrative route is the jurisdiction with the highest number of claims filed, due to breaches of the lex artis ad hoc.