You need to wonder hour for hour, do we spend more time charting the care we give, or actually caring for our patients.
Don't know about most nurses, but I'd rather spend time doing hands-on care then chart the bare minimum. Could that come back to haunt me should a lawsuit arise, sure. For days when falls, medication errors and other "questionable events" occur, you need to pay a bit more attention to your charting.
Otherwise, I'll let the malpractice insurance company handle things if I ever get sued.
Andrew Lopez, RN
http://www.4nursing.com