TX Nurses facing criminal charges for reporting doctor to Board of Medicine

Are you kidding me? Let me tell you how much they SUCK! I'm speaking about one of the main nursing liability insurance companies out there. I thought I would be covered for the majority of my SLAPP suit, but I'm barely covered at all! They sent a 20 page document to my attorney telling them why they wouldn't be able to cover the suit.

If anyone wants the details, please let me know.

As usual the docs get away...

We, as nurses do have a whistle blowers law.....It is called our license!!! Are we not patient advocates anymore, are we not suppose to be the last line of defense for the patient ? If that isnt a whistle blowers law, than what is one? We as nurses are obligated by LAW to be there for the patient....I.E. ADVOCATE!!! What is the world coming to when we as caregivers can't be the patient advocate... I had a situation once where a pedi E.R. doc refused to intubate a severe asthmatic...He said that he had never intubated a asthma pt. yet and wasn't going to start with this 12y.o. boy!!! I not only went above his head to the pedi Icu doc, but I also went to the house supervisor and also reported him to the state board....When asked why i went to the board by my manager...I told her because the guy was going to let a 12 y.o. die right in front of his mother, due to him not wanting to intubate the kid.... She said fair enough you did the right thing...I don't want to work with someone that irresponsible with a human life...especially a doctor who should know better....By the way the kid was on the vent for 2 weeks due to this docs lack of skills, but is alive and well do to the pedi icu doctor taking the pt. over and intubating him....I will report another doctor if I have to ....If it means saving someones life....The nerve of Texas!!!

I think you have a point in that the ANA's record is not exactly stellar in promoting the welfare of the bedside nurse. Then again, other than union members, how many nurses are members of the ANA? Can we expect to make an impact on ANA policies if we aren't involved?

It's Texas, The South, The Good Ole Boy System! Nuff said?

A long time ago, when I was a grad student, I had a job supervising 3 group homes for DD individuals. One was for young adult and teen males, one for little an teen girls and the third was for the three kids with the lowest I.Qs (20 or below) who didn't neatly catagorize -- 2 boys ages 6 and 13 who functioned on about a 6 month level mentally but an 18 month old physically and a 16 year old girl who functioned overall as a three year old an also acted in a sexually inappropriate way with all males. (Phew!) That house was the hardest to keep staffed and running smoothly, by far and, often, I would find myself acting as a substitute houseparent on very short notice. On one such occasion, I grabbed the dufflebag of clothes that lived in my trunk and let myself in expecting a wild nonstop 48 hours. The house was too quiet. The two mostly nonverbal boys were parked on the floor and not in their special chairs and all alone. I had called out when I had come in but there had been no answer.

I called again as I went upstairs but, again, silence greeted me. Total and complete empty silence. I rounded the corner and suddenly heard the shower running. I knocked but there was no response. I opened the door and there was the male college student houseparent showering with and receiving oral sex from the teen girl resident. I have not been totally speechless many times in my whole life but that was one of them. I grabbed a towel and began to dry the girl then covered her and led her to her bedroom. I told the houseparent to stay put while I called my supervisor.

When she came, I had my witness and we fired him on the spot but he answered that his dad was a judge and his uncle a senator and he'd keep his job and we'd both lose ours'. Long story short, we came out on top but barely and that creep of a kid got into an Ivy League law school. I enlisted the support of some relatives in the law and politics and my boss and I came out OK but after everything imaginable was done to make us look unstable, immoral and irresponsible. While it was not in nursing, it had a profound effect on my career because it finally forced me to say I had not worked while in grad school and I was taught as a child that you never ever ever lie, no matter what the reason.

Kathy
sharpeimom