Which of the following components are needed to prove negligence?

• A. Duty to act, breach of duty, injury/damages, and causation
• B. Abandonment, breach of duty, damages, and causation
• C. Breach of duty, injury/damages, abandonment, and causation
• D. Abandonment, breach of duty, injury/damages, and causation

Answer: (A)

Negligence is proven by four elements: a duty to act (a duty of care owed to the patient), a breach of that duty (failing to meet the standard of care), causation (the breach caused the harm, including both actual and proximate cause), and damages (the patient suffered injury or loss). The option that includes all four—duty to act, breach of duty, injury/damages, and causation—is the best because it demonstrates how the caregiver’s conduct fell below the standard of care and led to harm. Abandonment isn’t part of the standard four elements, so including it doesn’t establish the necessary link between duty, breach, causation, and damages. For example, if a caregiver doesn’t turn a patient when required, resulting in a pressure injury, this shows the duty, the breach, the harm, and the causal connection between the breach and the injury.