Failure to exercise reasonable care resulting in harm is called?

Failure to exercise reasonable care resulting in harm is called?

• A. Assault
• B. Negligence
• C. Malpractice
• D. Battery

Answer: (B)

Negligence is the failure to exercise the level of care that a reasonably prudent person would under similar circumstances, and harm results because of that lapse. In a clinical setting, this means a professional didn’t meet the standard of care, leading to injury or damage, with four elements: a duty to act with reasonable care, a breach of that duty, causation linking the breach to the harm, and damages suffered by the patient. Assault and battery involve intentional harmful contact or the threat of such contact, not mere carelessness, so they don’t fit. Malpractice describes professional negligence, which is negligence within a professional context, but the general term for the described situation is negligence.

Negligence is the failure to exercise the level of care that a reasonably prudent person would under similar circumstances, and harm results because of that lapse. In a clinical setting, this means a professional didn’t meet the standard of care, leading to injury or damage, with four elements: a duty to act with reasonable care, a breach of that duty, causation linking the breach to the harm, and damages suffered by the patient. Assault and battery involve intentional harmful contact or the threat of such contact, not mere carelessness, so they don’t fit. Malpractice describes professional negligence, which is negligence within a professional context, but the general term for the described situation is negligence.