Finally! Jury awards ValleyCare nurse punitive damages

These institutions should know by now that the community has a soft spot for us nurses. We are the most trusted profession. Thanks for posting this article and thanks to the nurse for sticking up for us.

Interesting. The first thing that came to my mind was a little different:

I couldn't help but recall that awful incident in Colorado with the surgical tech. exposing many people to Hepatitis while she used the hospital equip. and meds to get her fixes.
As I read through the mistakes and institutional flaws in OP's article, it somehow brought the Colorado incident to mind for me.


It seems people are no longer falling for the "throw the nurse under the bus" tactics so many facilities use. Incidents like the one in CO are making people aware that the facilities who they trust to care for them in their time of need..........are often cutting corners that put their quality of life at risk.

I'm not so sure ten years ago that this case would have gone the same way. But, people's eyes are being opened to what the cause of poor pt. care is...............and it is not always the nurse. I can see many more cases like the one in this topic being settled. People are eager to lay the hammer down on greedy managers and administration that push the envelope with regards to pt. safety in the name of bigger profit.

It will be interesting to see if this verdict stands. Here in florida, I really don't think that she would have won. She quit her job. Nursing is hectic and we fight to keep our patients safe all the time. I have been in nursing almost 20years and people other than the patients and always been my biggest problem.

i have discovered, through experience, that nurses can quit their jobs, r/t working in extraordinarily stressful environments, and still be vindicated.
they can collect unemployment and win lawsuits.

while many of us are familiar w/bullying, harrassment, even termination, for those who dare to stand up to substandard care...
and it truly does make one reconsider as to whether they would advocate again...
it wreaks such havoc on one's life.

but there IS a light at the end of the tunnel.
and with proper support, representation, and thorough documentation, justice can and does prevail.
it did for me and it did for this nurse.

thanks for the article, op.
it only served to reinforce my often, rose-tinted ideals.

leslie

A similar thing just happened to me. Unfortunately I did not keep copies of all the emails and incident reports that I sent. The hospital deleted my email and all the documents I had saved. They demoted me saying I was "too stressed to do my job" and I resigned. There were constant patient safety issues that I brought to the managers attention all the time and nothing was done about them.

I hope I never lose my rose-tinted ideals.

Thanks OP and leslie!

Thanks for posting! Good article and GOOD FOR HER!