Norton Audubon Hospital in Kentucky fired 14 nurses and disciplined 9 other nurses for sedating patients with Diprivan without an order. The hospital has also notified the Kentucky Board of Nursing of the matter.
As nurses we have to make sure that we are practicng within our scope of practice at all times, regardless of the practicing setting (home health, ICU, med/surg, etc). Practicing outside your scope of practice (LPN, RN, APN, etc) can lead to employment (disciplinary action taken in the workplace), administrative (Board of Nursing investigation), and/or criminal (practicing medicine without a license/certificate, which is a felony is some states) investigations.
Eastcoast, she had both a trach and VRE. She was on methadone to help her withdraw. She coded. She had flash pulmonary edema. She had a psychotic episode once she got home (infection related, they think). She had to go back and have her gallbladder removed. The only reason the woman's not dead is that she's just to mean to die. (I love her anyway!).
Oh my word. That's awful. I've seen long term patients and wondered sometimes what happened when they finally got home. Guess i found out. I do hope she makes out okay. She must be a tenacious lady.
Melbnurse I have been trying to find something on the situation in 10b at Townsville or the Chelmsford affair as I think both of those the nurses acted under fear of medical retribution. Can you remember??
I truly don't think this was about not daring to ring a doctor in the night. It was an ongoing policy that was not properly covered with a standing order. Not good, but it happens. No harm was done, but now this hospital has a reason to expose these nurses and it using this to it's fullest advantage.
Can't really help you there ! I m not from Brissy, and hav been working in an isolated area , ( RFDS) for 21 years , prior to returning to Melboure . I heard about it , but don't have any info. Will ask around tho
It is just that I have it in my mind there was something in the official investigation especially in relation to 10b a that there was a negative peer pressure occuring to compaund the situation. I will do a search.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
I am of the mind to agree with those who say this reeks of a rat.
something is not right here.......I, too, smell a situation that was KNOWN and yet nothing DONE til there was a "reason". BIG wake-up call for the rest of us, eh?
Hope these nurses have a good lawyer...I will be following this story. I have a good idea what they deal with at their facility.
I work with several abusive groups of docs who are coercive, abusive and sneaky. They write orders on the chart like "This patient self extubated last admission...do NOT let it happen again". then order NO sedation for a wildman on a vent...
They set up vent protocol meds then bytch if we use them ...gee wasn't that the plan?? I think it's a real phenom today....the angry, passive aggresssive doctor....
Also they gossip about night shift to day shift and badmouth us...one pulm doc told day shift the other day "Tell those night nurses if any of them call me I'll get their salaries cut in half".
If we don't call we're wrong...if we call we're wrong...no winning with these types...
Are some of the timid nurses afraid to call them? YES. Because these are the docs who intimidate and complain and make lives miserable.....
But...administration cowtows to them.
I'll bet these Kentucky nurses can relate mattsmom- and that's probably a big reason they are trying to unionize!
You know, there is something about this whole thing (as every one else has stated) that is fishy!
Does it have to do with the union? A BIG maybe but maybe not!
And if this has gone on for a long time, how were the nurses getting the propofol? Out of the pyxis? From other patients? That would have been traced a long time ago, so why were they just NOW terminated?
Were the pts ALREADY on a prop gtt? Did all they do to calm their pts was to give them a bolus? (I do that all the time! But all the places I have worked, the orders would give parameters on the amount of sedation to titrate the prop to!) Or were they just given a bolus of propofol without being on a gtt?
This is a perfect example of how we - and I mean we, as a nursing profession, and the public - only hear part of the story! And, unfortunately, this article makes nurses look like schmucks! I really don't think articles like this help us AT ALL!
KaroSnowQueen, RN
960 Posts
I am SURE as are most people I've talked to in this area that there is MUCH more to this than is being let out.
edited to keep foot out of mouth