Nurses Call the Governor of Tennessee

Nurses General Nursing

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

Specializes in ER.

I think this thread has run its course.

I agree with Juan, Jory is becoming insulting. It's time to give it a rest.

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4 hours ago, juan de la cruz said:

Oh she needs her license revoked and should never practice as a nurse again. Go to jail? nah. What are we rehabilitating her for? laziness? murder? She's not going to recover emotionally from this and her future is probably screwed from the scars of this ordeal. That's punishment enough.

The purpose of jail is not to rehabilitate. The purpose is to punish. That is why we don't let everyone off on probation that commits a criminal offense that has a unique set of circumstances unlikely to repeat itself in this lifetime.

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Specializes in Tele, ICU, Staff Development.

Breaking news: The Institute for Safe Medicine Practices (ISMP)

supports Rodonda Vaught.

In a statement released today, the ISMP:

  • Believes we have an obligation to change the culture of blame, abandonment, and isolation towards second victims
  • States there were no effective systems in place to prevent removing and administering a neuromuscular blockade after override
  • Does not believe criminal action will improve safety
  • Urges leaders to be accountable, avoid the severity bias and establish a Just Culture
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4 hours ago, juan de la cruz said:

Oh you edited. Really? your original comment is still up there.

Uh...it's the same. Not sure what you are trying to prove.

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31 minutes ago, Emergent said:

I think this thread has run its course.

I agree with Juan, Jory is becoming insulting. It's time to give it a rest.

Juan asked for proof on something she said didn't exist and then freaked when I posted the article. I haven't been insulting at all, but she is being rather childish.

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
4 hours ago, juan de la cruz said:

I sure would want to sign up for a medication error prevention committee at work. Hey, it's an interesting research topic. I'd love to help keep my units at work safe and up to standards.

https://www.ismp.org/resources/safety-enhancements-every-hospital-must-consider-wake-another-tragic-neuromuscular

I remember setting up meds for a ward of 37 patients using little med cards and metal trays with slots and holes. We've come a long way, baby. In the past few decades, hospitals have implemented marvelous systems for preventing errors. But when we wantonly bypass them, they might as well not exist.

The hospital might improve the system even further. But where they really fell down was having someone on the payroll who was practicing unsafely. Unless this shows to be out-of-character for this nurse, I think the hospital is more flawed in their personnel practices than in their medication delivery systems.

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
4 hours ago, student24 said:

I just did right before go to work. We need to prevent her from going to jail because this can be one of us in this complex profession that is in constant demands.

And you read the complete CMS report before you did this?

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1 minute ago, TriciaJ said:

Unless this shows to be out-of-character for this nurse, I think the hospital is more flawed in their personnel practices than in their medication delivery systems.

I suspect both their personnel practices and medication delivery systems and every other thing follow principles of "what can we do to make this look right" rather than "What can we do that is right."

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
50 minutes ago, Nurse Beth said:

Breaking news: The Institute for Safe Medicine Practices (ISMP)

supports Rodonda Vaught.

In a statement released today, the ISMP:

  • Believes we have an obligation to change the culture of blame, abandonment, and isolation towards second victims
  • States there were no effective systems in place to prevent removing and administering a neuromuscular blockade after override
  • Does not believe criminal action will improve safety
  • Urges leaders to be accountable, avoid the severity bias and establish a Just Culture

I am completely blown away by this. The second victim was the patient's family. The nurse is a victim of her own careless practices. No effective systems in place? Well of course they're not effective when you ignore policy and principles. Maybe they need to invent a big robot arm that slaps your hand away from grabbing the wrong med. Urges leaders to be accountable? Everyone needs to be accountable. The leaders do need to be accountable for unaddressed personnel issues.

My takeaway from this? Don't get sick.

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Specializes in NICU/Neonatal transport.
1 minute ago, TriciaJ said:

I am completely blown away by this. The second victim was the patient's family. The nurse is a victim of her own careless practices. No effective sytems in place? Well of course they're not effective when you ignore policy and principles. May they need to invent a big robot arm that slaps your hand away from grabbing the wrong med. Urges leaders to be accountable? Everyone needs to be accountable. The leaders do need to be accountable for unaddressed personnel issues.

My takeaway from this? Don't get sick.

I agree and disagree - I would call the nurse a tertiary victim at best, not the second victim. Tertiary relegates it to the periphery where it belongs because the family's loss should be the biggest focus, as well as the overall loss of life of the primary victim. I do agree though that people who do have a conscience will be haunted by these mistakes for the rest of their life, which will be terrible for them (but still not as important as the feelings of the victim and their family/friends).

I really didn't like

Quote

States there were no effective systems in place to prevent removing and administering a neuromuscular blockade after override

Really? Really? How in the hell are you going to prevent someone from administering it if they aren't checking anything, aren't looking at anything and aren't documenting anything (though they should be doing all those things). Is there going to be a nursing defensive line to tackle people if they think that someone is going to give the wrong drug, that they have no way of knowing it's incorrect?

I don't think that this legal action will improve safety per se, but I also don't think it will harm safety. It's an important distinction. It doesn't have to improve safety, honestly. It's just holding people accountable for their actions.

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
2 minutes ago, LilPeanut said:

I don't think that this legal action will improve safety per se, but I also don't think it will harm safety. It's an important distinction. It doesn't have to improve safety, honestly. It's just holding people accountable for their actions.

Exactly. I don't think we need to be afraid to report our errors; it's how we hold ourselves accountable. But I still can't fathom any nurse practicing the way this one did. If she is not held accountable by the law of the land, does this give us all a pass to practice however we want? As long as you can't prove I killed someone deliberately, I'm home-free?

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Specializes in NICU/Neonatal transport.
1 minute ago, TriciaJ said:

Exactly. I don't think we need to be afraid to report our errors; it's how we hold ourselves accountable. But I still can't fathom any nurse practicing the way this one did. If she is not held accountable by the law of the land, does this give us all a pass to practice however we want? As long as you can't prove I killed someone deliberately, I'm home-free?

I mean....it could be handy I guess....? Not my style LOL

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