Radonda Vaught is charging $10,000 per speaking engagement.

[klone]

Or, $7,500 if you just want her virtually. Good to know that negligent homicide is such a lucrative endeavor. 
 

https://www.executivespeakers.com/speaker/radonda-vaught

[toomuchbaloney]

Aliareza said:

I don't think there's anything simple about it. She made a mistake that killed a patient. There were many factors involved, her own negligence and poor practice included. There is no questioning that. My question to you was this: "Will you claim that Vanderbilt had no hand in this patient's death?"

Vanderbilt has nothing to do with her professional actions. Their culpability is seperate from hers.  

[JKL33]

Aliareza said:

 My question to you was this: "Will you claim that Vanderbilt had no hand in this patient's death?"

What do you see as their hand in the specific events leading up to this patient's death, specifically? 

[Aliareza, BSN]

toomuchbaloney said:

Vanderbilt has nothing to do with her professional actions. Their culpability is seperate from hers.  

You'll side-step it ad infinitum but you won't actually just answer the question I've asked several times so I don't know what more to say to you. There is no getting around it: The answer is yes. Yes, Vanderbilt created this unsafe environment in which it was possible for a nurse to make a mistake so egregious that a patient died. Yes, Vanderbilt had a responsibility to keep their patients safe and they failed them. Yes, Vanderbilt is directly complicit in the death of this patient. 

[toomuchbaloney]

Aliareza said:

You'll side-step it ad infinitum but you won't actually just answer the question I've asked several times so I don't know what more to say to you. There is no getting around it: The answer is yes. Yes, Vanderbilt created this unsafe environment in which it was possible for a nurse to make a mistake so egregious that a patient died. Yes, Vanderbilt had a responsibility to keep their patients safe and they failed them. Yes, Vanderbilt is directly complicit in the death of this patient. 

No, they didn't create an unsafe environment which contributed to the death in this specific case.  You should read the facts of the case.  

[Aliareza, BSN]

JKL33 said:

What do you see as their hand in the specific events leading up to this patient's death, specifically? 

Several things: First, the fact that nurses at that time had to override anything they gave from the med Pyxis, down to the simplest bag of saline. Second, the fact that Vaught was floated to the neuro ICU and had full power to pull all of the very dangerous medications from their Pyxis. Third, that she states she asked neuro ICU nurses for help and was denied. All of these are failures of Vanderbilt to provide an environment of safe medication administration and safe practice. Any one of these things being changed could have saved this patient's life. 

I have a lot of sympathy for nurses working in those types of environments because I have seen patients die due to the absolutely wretched work environments hospitals impose on workers. I left the entire southeast as a region because this type of work environment is so rampant in that area (no coincidence she's from there and this mistake happened there). Nurses in these hospitals are thrown under the bus for making mistakes in an environment that directly breeds mistakes. I would like to see the hospitals themselves held accountable for their own crimes against their patients, but of course corporate accountability isn't the strong-suit of the United States.

[klone, MSN, RN]

Aliareza said:

IMy question to you was this: "Will you claim that Vanderbilt had no hand in this patient's death?"

Yes, it is my contention that VUH had no hand in this patient's death. What they did afterwards was horrible and they deserve severe repercussions for the subsequent coverup. But no, they had no hand in Mrs. Murphey's death. She was not overworked, given a too-hard patient assignment, or anything of the kind. She was an extra body, doing "tasks" for her unit. In this ONE SINGLE TASK, she failed egregiously.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Aliareza said:

the fact that Vaught was floated to the neuro ICU and had full power to pull all of the very dangerous medications from their Pyxis

This was her home unit, which was so well staffed that RV didn't even have a patient assignment and was a free helper for the nurses who did have patient assignments. She should be familiar with "the very dangerous medications" used on her own unit and had given Versed during her previous shift.

Quote

Third, that she states she asked neuro ICU nurses for help and was denied.

Could you please point out the exact part of the primary sources where it states she asked for help in medication administration?

[klone, MSN, RN]

Aliareza said:

Several things: First, the fact that nurses at that time had to override anything they gave from the med Pyxis, down to the simplest bag of saline. Second, the fact that Vaught was floated to the neuro ICU and had full power to pull all of the very dangerous medications from their Pyxis. Third, that she states she asked neuro ICU nurses for help and was denied. All of these are failures of Vanderbilt to provide an environment of safe medication administration and safe practice. Any one of these things being changed could have saved this patient's life. 

Your facts are incorrect. First, she did not have to override all meds. Mrs. Murphey's Versed WAS in the Pyxis profile, and had been for (I believe, if I remember the TBI report correctly) at least 15 minutes prior to when RV accessed the Pyxis. She CHOSE to override, rather than look at the meds in the profile.

Second, she was not floated to the Neuro ICU. She was a trained ICU nurse, who had served as charge nurse (I believe) as well as preceptor on the unit. She was simply escorting one of HER UNIT'S patients down to imaging to receive an ordered MRI prior to discharge from the hospital. She was well-versed (no pun intended) in administering Versed, the drug she was SUPPOSED to have given.

[toomuchbaloney]

Aliareza said:

Several things: First, the fact that nurses at that time had to override anything they gave from the med Pyxis, down to the simplest bag of saline. Second, the fact that Vaught was floated to the neuro ICU and had full power to pull all of the very dangerous medications from their Pyxis. Third, that she states she asked neuro ICU nurses for help and was denied. All of these are failures of Vanderbilt to provide an environment of safe medication administration and safe practice. Any one of these things being changed could have saved this patient's life. 

I have a lot of sympathy for nurses working in those types of environments because I have seen patients die due to the absolutely wretched work environments hospitals impose on workers. I left the entire southeast as a region because this type of work environment is so rampant in that area (no coincidence she's from there and this mistake happened there). Nurses in these hospitals are thrown under the bus for making mistakes in an environment that directly breeds mistakes. I would like to see the hospitals themselves held accountable for their own crimes against their patients, but of course corporate accountability isn't the strong-suit of the United States.

Your facts are wrong and therefore you have reached a flawed conclusion. Please review the facts in this specific case. 

[FiremedicMike, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

Aliareza said:

Several things: First, the fact that nurses at that time had to override anything they gave from the med Pyxis, down to the simplest bag of saline. Second, the fact that Vaught was floated to the neuro ICU and had full power to pull all of the very dangerous medications from their Pyxis. Third, that she states she asked neuro ICU nurses for help and was denied. All of these are failures of Vanderbilt to provide an environment of safe medication administration and safe practice. Any one of these things being changed could have saved this patient's life. 

I have a lot of sympathy for nurses working in those types of environments because I have seen patients die due to the absolutely wretched work environments hospitals impose on workers. I left the entire southeast as a region because this type of work environment is so rampant in that area (no coincidence she's from there and this mistake happened there). Nurses in these hospitals are thrown under the bus for making mistakes in an environment that directly breeds mistakes. I would like to see the hospitals themselves held accountable for their own crimes against their patients, but of course corporate accountability isn't the strong-suit of the United States.

Clearly you've never worked emergency or critical care.  Override meds are a necessity in these situations where the doc and patient don't have time to sit at a computer and enter orders for emergent meds then wait for pharmacy to verify during critical incidents. 

[Wuzzie]

Aliareza said:

Several things: First, the fact that nurses at that time had to override anything they gave from the med Pyxis, down to the simplest bag of saline. 

They were installing bar code scanners in the hospital. While the transition was being made they temporarily had to override until the 2 computer systems were connected. This had been resolved some weeks prior to the incident. She overrode because she did not see the medication in the patient's profile although it was, in fact, there.

 

Aliareza said:

Second, the fact that Vaught was floated to the neuro ICU and had full power to pull all of the very dangerous medications from their Pyxis. 

 

 She was not floated to the neuro ICU. She was a staff nurse in that unit acting as a resource person. In fact she had given Versed just 24 hours prior so this wasn't an unfamiliar medication. 
 

Also regarding asking for help. That never happened  

 

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

From the CMS report:

Quote

#1 stated, "I was in a patient care role, I was the help-all nurse. A help-all nurse is a resource nurse and I had an Orientee" RN #1 stated that RN #2 had asked her to go
downstairs to Radiology PET scan and administer the medication Versed to Patient #1 because the patient was not able to tolerate the PET scan procedure or they would have to send the patient back and reschedule it.

RN #1 stated he/she searched for the Versed under her profile in the ADC and he/she couldn't find it. The RN stated he/she then chose the override setting on the ADC and searched for the Versed.

RN #1 stated she was talking to the Orientee while he/she was searching the ADC for the Versed and had typed in the first 2 letters of Versed which are VE and chose the 1st
medication on the list.

RN #1 stated he/she took out the medication vial out of the ADC, and looked at the back of the vial at the directions for how much to reconstitute it with. RN #1 verified he/she did not re-check the name on the vial RN #1 stated, "I reconstituted the medication and measured the amount I needed"

RN #1 stated he/she grabbed a sticker from the patient's file, a handful of flushes, alcohol swabs, a blunt tip needle. RN #1 stated he/she put the medication vial in a baggie and wrote on the baggie, "PET scan, Versed 1-2 mg" and went to
Radiology to administer the medication to Patient #1...

...The RN stated Radiology Technician #1 was there at the time he/she administered the medication IV to Patient #1. RN #1 stated he/she left the Radiology PET scan area after he/she
had administered the medication to Patient #1.

RN #1 was asked how much medication did he/she administer to Patient #1, and the RN stated, "I can't remember, I am pretty sure I gave [him/her] 1 milliliter.
RN #1 was asked what was done with any left over medication, and the RN stated, "I put the left over in the baggie and gave it to [Named RN #2]..."

RN #1 was asked what he/she did after administering the medication to Patient #1, and the RN stated he/she left Patient #1 in Radiology.

RN #1 confirmed that he/she did not monitor Patient #1 after the medication was administered.

From her own BON testimony

Anonymous865 said:

In her testimony to the 2nd BON investigation, it sounds even worse.  

They asked when was the last time she had given Versed.  Radonda answered the day before the incident.

BON:  isn't Versed a controlled substance

Radonda: Yes

BON: Doesn't the ADC require you to count and confirm controlled substances?

Radonda: Yes.

BON:  When you pulled Vecuronium did you have to do a count?

Radonda: No

BON: Did that not raise a red flag for you?

Radonda: No

BON:  was the vial a different size and color from the versed vial from the day before?

Radonda: Yes

BON: Did that not raise a red flag for you?

Radonda: No

BON: When you gave Versed the day before did it have to be reconstituted?

Radonda:  No

BON:  When you saw it was a powder, did that not raise a red flag for you?

Radonda: No

BON:  Did you read the label to determine the concentration of the reconstituted powder

Radonda: No

BON:  How did you know how much to give

Radonda:  well when we give versed it is usually 1mg/ml

They also asked about her going to ED to do the swallow assessment.  It sounded like ED was next to radiology.  When she got to ED, her patient wasn't there.  

BON:  what did you do when you found the patient wasn't there?

Radonda:  went back to the neuro ICU and check with various nurses to see if they needed any help

BON:  why didn't you go back to check on your patient in radiology before returning to the unit?

Radonda:  uh 

There were so many opportunities for her to think wait something isn't right here.