Nurses’ Perception of Nursing Malpractice Liability Insurance

Hospital nurses’ increased responsibility in exercising advanced nursing skills also brought about greater risk of error and liability. However, Korea still has no systems such as liability insurance to protect nurses from such risks. This study estimates nurses’ perceptions of nursing care liability insurance and their willingness to pay (WTP) for nursing malpractice insurance.

This study estimates the WTP of 156 nurses from six hospitals in Seoul and the metropolitan area using the contingent valuation method with a regression model with the double bounded dichotomous choice method.

The analysis results show that nurses’ perceptions of the insurance (p<0.037) had a significant impact on their WTP the insurance premium. In other words, the higher the perceptions about the insurance (B=6, 534.067) were, the higher the insurance premium to they were willing to pay. Participants who perceived that nursing malpractice insurance was necessary had a WTP of 22.12 USD as the insurance premium.

The results pertaining to insurance premiums in this study can be utilized as baseline data to develop a nursing malpractice liability insurance system in Korea, and for the ultimate calculation of rational insurance premiums. This study provides basic data on the needs for nursing care liability insurance in Korea.