Vaught is set to be sentenced on her convictions in Davidson County Criminal Court on Friday by Judge Jennifer Smith.
What do you think the sentencing will/should be? Do you think she should receive jail time?
Quote
"Her charges carry possible penalties of up to eight years in prison. The neglect charge could include from three to six years, the homicide one to two years incarceration.
Smith will set the sentence, bound by guidelines in state law, and will decide whether it includes jail time and whether the sentences run concurrently or consecutively."
Judicial Diversion and Supervised probation for 3 years. Will reassess after completion of probationary period.
No prison time.
Judicial Diversion
"Judicial Diversion in TN is a method by which many first-time offenders can have the opportunity to ultimately have their conviction dismissed following a successful probationary period, thereby preserving a clean record and giving them the opportunity to have it expunged, or completely removed, from their criminal history."
She committed criminally negligent homicide and the conviction will ensure that she never works as a nurse again in any state
Unfortunately, as TNButterfly pointed out, her record could be expunged in 3 years which means getting her license back is entirely possible. I did not understand that at first. ?
Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
16 minutes ago, Wuzzie said:
Unfortunately, as TNButterfly pointed out, her record could be expunged in 3 years which means getting her license back is entirely possible. I did not understand that at first. ?
Even if she somehow gets her license back, the publicity is going to ensure that prospective employers will know who she is and what she did, expunged record or not. I doubt there are many who would be willing to take her on.
Given the fact that the TBON screwed up so massively when this was first brought to them I find their competence to be suspect. The fact that you used the terms “most likely” is the reason. But now seeing what TNButterfly posted I am certain that RV will bid for reinstatement and it will probably happen which makes me sick.
She isn’t the first nurse charged and convicted for egregiously negligent practice involving a medication. I’m not sure why everyone is making this THE seminal case. The nursing community could not have possibly picked a worse poster child to represent us. She certainly doesn’t represent me.
I agree the BON royally screwed up. She should have had her license yanked immediately after the error was reported.
And I totally understand why you think she needed to be charged.
I'm just concerned about the consequences. I have made errors before. Granted, nothing that even remotely harmed a patient, but I still messed up. And I always am careful when I am doing my med pass. But I remember the days where I would have 6 or 7 med-surg patients and feel overwhelmed, pressured to work faster and cut corners and I can totally see a devastating med error happening due to unsafe working environments.
It is frightening to me that I could go to prison for making an honest mistake. And unlike Radonda, my black butt would have had the book thrown at me and the key thrown away...there would be no probation for me...only years of prison.
Except the TN BON took no action on her license until after the charges were filed. They did an “investigation” and did nothing at first.
In my opinion the Tennessee Board of Nursing has shown itself to be just another bureaucratic entity shuffling paper work around and making themselves useless.
Have you read the CMS and TBI reports? This is nowhere near your run of the mill med error. This is not a precedent setting case.
I'm aware of the case but I am also looking at the case through the eyes of a Black woman and I know if I made an error not even as egregious as RV, I would have been destroyed. Because let's face it, the criminal justice system is known to punish POC more harshly.
hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I
4 Articles; 5,212 Posts
She committed criminally negligent homicide and the conviction will ensure that she never works as a nurse again in any state