Nurse Charged With Homicide

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  1. Should Radonda Vaught, the nurse who gave a lethal dose of Vecuronium to patient at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, be charged with reckless homicide?

    • 395
      She should not have been charged
    • 128
      She deserved to be charged

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Radonda Vaught, a 35 year old nurse who worked at the University of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has been indicted on charges of reckless homicide. Read Nurse Gives Lethal Dose of Vecuronium

Radonda is the nurse who mistakenly gave Vecuronium (a paralytic) to a patient instead of Versed. The patient died.

True being charged is different than being convicted however I can see where to many on a case like this where it could mean the same. Like it or not, people judge us especially when something goes amiss. I too always followed the 5 rights yet there is always room for a mistake especially now with the newer medication systems

. I still say discipline yes of course but murder no.

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Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.
1 hour ago, rudecat said:

I still say discipline yes of course but murder no.

She’s not being charged with murder — she’s being charged for reckless homicide.

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I stand corrected ....,reckless homicide. That said, my views on this matter have not changed.

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29 minutes ago, rudecat said:

That said, my views on this matter have not changed.

Just curious, did you read the reports? If so, where do we draw the line? At the 6th warning disregard? The 12th? Not being snarky just really want to know how badly a nurse needs to perform before discipline isn't enough.

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16 hours ago, rudecat said:

True being charged is different than being convicted however I can see where to many on a case like this where it could mean the same. Like it or not, people judge us especially when something goes amiss. I too always followed the 5 rights yet there is always room for a mistake especially now with the newer medication systems

. I still say discipline yes of course but murder no.

Do you think the community looks upon the police with approving eyes every time they dance around formal charges and instead opt for internal discipline?

Nursing is the most ethical profession in the world. Ethics require that we examine ourselves internally and externally. If there is a doubt, we should submit ourselves to the public for judgement.

I am proud as an ethical and professional registered nurse that cases like this go to a court.

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1 hour ago, rudecat said:

I stand corrected ....,reckless homicide. That said, my views on this matter have not changed.

Can you explain why the public should not be allowed to review the evidence and weigh judgement?

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1 hour ago, Wuzzie said:

Just curious, did you read the reports? If so, where do we draw the line? At the 6th warning disregard? The 12th? Not being snarky just really want to know how badly a nurse needs to perform before discipline isn't enough.

I get the feeling many people didn't read the reports. RV should have never made it past the first semester of RN school, let alone been turned loose in a hospital.

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Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.
1 hour ago, Asystole RN said:

Do you think the community looks upon the police with approving eyes every time they dance around formal charges and instead opt for internal discipline?

Nursing is the most ethical profession in the world. Ethics require that we examine ourselves internally and externally. If there is a doubt, we should submit ourselves to the public for judgement.

I am proud as an ethical and professional registered nurse that cases like this go to a court.

Excellent point.

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
On 5/23/2019 at 8:09 AM, gcupid said:

Assignment despite objection form shouldn't even exist. I'bet those forms are in paper. Management can throw that document in the trash as soon as you turn it in. If one must follow that protocol, you should be able to submit those forms directly to the state board of nursing via email and the board should actually audit how often and for what reason are these forms being submitted and determine fines/require improvement plans/& public notice if it's truly invested in the safety of the population.

Give nurses some power. We run the hospitals and we are grossly underpaid and disrespected. Texas is a non-union state and it has somewhat the same allowance for the nurse to report unsafe situations when being forced to take a crazy unsafe assignment.

I took a break from this thread for a few weeks and am now catching up. The Unsafe Staffing Form that I have used was a multiple carbon copy form. One of the copies went to the union and another copy went to the hospital licensing entity (not JC). It didn't help the hospital to round-file them since there were copies going outside their system.

If there is no preprinted form, it can be free-formed and multiple copies made for the appropriate entities.

The Board of Nursing has no oversight over hospitals and how they staff. The exist solely to protect the public from unsafe nurses and nurse imposters. In this particular instance, they failed miserably.

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