A UAP drips water on the floor after washing their hands but does not notice, and later a visitor falls and breaks their wrist.

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

Answer: (B)

Keeping the environment safe is a duty of care for anyone working in a care setting. When a UAP washes their hands and leaves a wet floor without noticing, they breach that duty by failing to prevent a foreseeable hazard. The water on the floor creates a real risk of slipping, so the Standard of Care requires taking reasonable steps to either dry the area or warn others. The visitor’s fall and resulting broken wrist show damages that flowed from that breach. Together, these elements—duty, breach, causation, and damages—fit the concept of negligence: an unintentional failure to exercise reasonable care that leads to injury.

Defamation and battery don’t apply here—the former involves false statements harming someone's reputation, and the latter involves intentional harmful contact. Malpractice is professional negligence by a licensed clinician; this scenario involves a nonlicensed staff member, so negligence is the best fit.