Nurses Call the Governor of Tennessee

Published

The state of TN is prosecuting nurse Radonda Vaught for reckless homicide. You can contact the Governor or DA to let him know what you think about this choice.

Governor Bill Lee

1st Floor, State Capitol
Nashville, TN 37243
(615) 741-2001
email: [email protected]

District Attorney Glenn Funk

10 minutes ago, TriciaJ said:

Turning up in scrubs to show their support? Have they actually thought about what they're supporting? Some people will mindlessly jump on any bandwagon, will lend their support to anything. Sickening.

I support safe and prudent nursing practice. Not infallible. Just conscientious.

Not only that, but there's a grieving family to think about. The family has declined to pursue civil charges, and have stated they've forgiven her. While I think those who want to support her have good intentions, they may be doing it in a way that diminishes the family's loss.

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Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.
13 minutes ago, Jory said:

Well, this is off topic...but it really isn't immature. Clinical instructors are supposed to teach...it is not their time to belittle or humiliate students. It is not their time to see how sarcastic, arrogant, or condescending they can be or how much they can tear students down. Spending the whole class talking about "me, me, me me me". They are there to support, guide, direct.

If you can't do that professionally and with compassion, then you have no business in the teaching profession.

Want to know WHY bullying is so prevalent in the profession of nursing that the Joint Commission has listed it as impacting patient care?

It starts in nursing school. Universities and colleges need to stop tolerating the behavior and so do hospitals. I have zero tolerance for this in other nurses and will call them out on it in a heartbeat.

I agree, which my point is we as nurses, or students, would use symbols of our profession as a way to make an impactful statement. Those nurses in support of Nurse RV aren't any less passionate than you and I that she is a martyr of "the cause", a Joan of Arc of some sort being burned at the stake.

But yes, you raise a good topic for another thread as I was a clinical instructor myself for one full semester and I have a lot of opinions...

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10 minutes ago, mtmkjr said:

Not only that, but there's a grieving family to think about. The family has declined to pursue civil charges, and have stated they've forgiven her. While I think those who want to support her have good intentions, they may be doing it in a way that diminishes the family's loss.

I just can’t get behind it. Yes, what about the family? Instead of paying money to someone who went out of their way to neglect a patient why not support the family who’s member died because of this nurses intentional neglect?

I don’t feel the nursing profession is on trial here. Embarrassed for the profession? Yes I am. I mean what exactly are you supporting? Are you supporting patient neglect? Are you supporting lack of patient care? Are you supporting willful negligence? I almost feel supporting this is showing lack of integrity for the nursing profession.

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10 minutes ago, mtmkjr said:

Not only that, but there's a grieving family to think about. The family has declined to pursue civil charges, and have stated they've forgiven her. While I think those who want to support her have good intentions, they may be doing it in a way that diminishes the family's loss.

Well, forgiving someone doesn't necessarily mean that they don't want them to be accountable. It wouldn't be the first time that someone said they forgave a caregiver for a mistake, but still went on to file a lawsuit in the interest of holding the forgiven one responsible and effecting change in the facility so that something like this would never happen again.

In many (most?) states, they have 2 years to file a lawsuit.

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12 minutes ago, BarrelOfMonkeys said:

I just can’t get behind it. Yes, what about the family? Instead of paying money to someone who went out of their way to neglect a patient why not support the family who’s member died because of this nurses intentional neglect?

I don’t feel the nursing profession is on trial here. Embarrassed for the profession? Yes I am. I mean what exactly are you supporting? Are you supporting patient neglect? Are you supporting lack of patient care? Are you supporting willful negligence? I almost feel supporting this is showing lack of integrity for the nursing profession.

Okay, hold up a minute. There are many reasonable people who believe that CIVIL, rather than CRIMINAL consequences are more appropriate in this instance. In other words, loss of license and the ability to ever set foot in a hospital again, and be held accountable in a civil court (lawsuit) are severe and appropriate penalties. Just because there are nurses who hold that opinion (I am one of them, though I'm not marching for her or contributing money to her) does NOT in any way mean they support "patient neglect, lack of patient care, or willful negligence." Nor does it mean that nurses who are of this opinion are "showing lack of integrity for the nursing profession."

I was taken to task earlier for suggesting that there are those who seem to believe that advocating for severe civil penalties rather than criminal penalties somehow makes that person a bad nurse (or someone who supports bad nursing), or "lacking integrity," but here we have the evidence for that post right here.

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6 minutes ago, Horseshoe said:

Well, forgiving someone doesn't necessarily mean that they don't want them to be accountable. It wouldn't be the first time that someone said they forgave a caregiver for a mistake, but still went on to file a lawsuit in the interest of holding the forgiven one responsible and effecting change in the facility so that something like this would never happen again.

In many (most?) states, they have 2 years to file a lawsuit.

Which is my point exactly.

Even though the family has stated they do not intend to press charges, and that they've forgiven her, it doesn't mean they won't change their minds.

And even if they don't want her to be charged, it still might be salt in the wound to see people rallying to her side.

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Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.

Civil trial is actually more appropriate and will please a lot more people in my mind. In those cases, the nurse involved (Nurse RV) and the facility (Vanderbilt) that she represented are both called to defense. Many settle out of court however.

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1 hour ago, TriciaJ said:

I read somewhere that at some point "someone" reported it. I'm betting it was someone at Vandy who realized the whole thing was being swept under the rug and blew the whistle.

A death directly caused from a medication or procedural error is required to be reported to the state by the facility.

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3 minutes ago, Horseshoe said:

Okay, hold up a minute. There are many reasonable people who believe that CIVIL, rather than CRIMINAL consequences are more appropriate in this instance. In other words, loss of license and the ability to ever set foot in a hospital again, and be held accountable in a civil court (lawsuit) are severe and appropriate penalties. Just because there are nurses who hold that opinion (I am one of them, though I'm not marching for her or contributing money to her) does NOT in any way mean they support "patient neglect, lack of patient care, or willful negligence." Nor does it mean that nurses who are of this opinion are "lacking in integrity."

I was taken to task earlier for suggesting that there are those who seem to believe that advocating for severe civil penalties rather than criminal penalties somehow makes that person a bad nurse, or "lacking integrity," but here we have the evidence for that post right here.

If that is the case, perhaps they could make their position a little more clear by doing a multi-location protest:

FIRST: Protest the BON and fact that it's been over a year and it appears she still holds an unencumbered license,

SECOND: move on over to the TriStar Centennial Hospital that hired her and has only suspended her with full knowledge of her low standard of safety.

THEN move on to Vanderbilt and protest the "System Errors" and the criminal charges against the nurse

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23 minutes ago, Horseshoe said:

Okay, hold up a minute. There are many reasonable people who believe that CIVIL, rather than CRIMINAL consequences are more appropriate in this instance. In other words, loss of license and the ability to ever set foot in a hospital again, and be held accountable in a civil court (lawsuit) are severe and appropriate penalties. Just because there are nurses who hold that opinion (I am one of them, though I'm not marching for her or contributing money to her) does NOT in any way mean they support "patient neglect, lack of patient care, or willful negligence." Nor does it mean that nurses who are of this opinion are "showing lack of integrity for the nursing profession."

I was taken to task earlier for suggesting that there are those who seem to believe that advocating for severe civil penalties rather than criminal penalties somehow makes that person a bad nurse (or someone who supports bad nursing), or "lacking integrity," but here we have the evidence for that post right here.

I don't...mainly because in every other profession in this country if you are negligent and kill someone they put other people in jail all the time. This is done in the food, pharmaceutical, industrial, and mining industries when safety is completely disregarded and causes the death of consumers.

Nursing, is not exempt. Substitute consumer for patient, personal convenience for profit, and you have the same thing.

There has to be a LEGAL LIMIT of what we can tolerate AS A PROFESSION before it becomes criminal.

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7 minutes ago, Jory said:

I don't...mainly because in every other profession in this country if you are negligent and kill someone they put other people in jail all the time. This is done in the food, pharmaceutical, industrial, and mining industries when safety is completely disregarded and causes the death of consumers.

Nursing, is not exempt. Substitute consumer for patient, personal convenience for profit, and you have the same thing.

There has to be a LEGAL LIMIT of what we can tolerate AS A PROFESSION before it becomes criminal.

I get that you and other prudent and reasonable nurses are of that opinion, and have the right to that opinion. NOT being of that same opinion, however, does not mean one advocates bad nursing practice. It's simply a difference of opinion on what the penalties should be. Both sides can agree that the nursing practice was appalling and negligent. Doesn't mean that reasonable people only have the right to ONE opinion.

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2 minutes ago, Horseshoe said:

Duplicate post

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