Radonda Vaught Trial

Nurses General Nursing

Updated:   Published

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"Fourteen Nashvillians were chosen Monday, March 21, 2022 to sit as a jury in the case of RaDonda Vaught, a former Medical Center nurse charged in the death of a patient. She faces charges of reckless homicide and impaired adult abuse in the 2017 death of Charlene Murphey."

For more on this story, see

Jury chosen in homicide trial of ex-Vanderbilt nurse RaDonda Vaught after fatal drug error

RaDonda Vaught’s Arraignment - Guilty or Not of Reckless Homicide and Patient Abuse?

Tennessee Nurse RaDonda Vaught - Legal Perspectives of Fatal Medication Error

What do you think the verdict should/will be?

1 hour ago, Lunah said:

Imagine, if only she'd typed in "VER" instead of just "VE,"

As a general (not personal ?) comment, it should be noted that the system could have been configured to require exactly that--or even more than 3 letters.

There are at least a few details that do deserve attention despite the overall negligence.

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.
1 minute ago, JKL33 said:

As a general (not personal ?) comment, it should be noted that the system could have been configured to require exactly that--or even more than 3 letters.

There are at least a few details that do deserve attention despite the overall negligence.

Indeed, I agree. And those who participated in the under-rug-sweeping should also receive scrutiny. 

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47 minutes ago, MunoRN said:

What comment are you referring to from the article?

An earlier comment when she accused the prosecutors of lying and states “that’s on them not on me” and then the inappropriate TikTok video the day she was sentenced. It’s just the overall picture of her making bad decisions and her comportment are off-putting to me. I’m not at all convinced of her remorse although I also realize that whether I believe in it or not is of no consequence. 

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On 3/26/2022 at 8:44 AM, JKL33 said:

The one pushing the med has the ultimate responsibility of assessing whether what they are about to do is safe or not. He or she is the one who shouldn't worry about upsetting people and should say, "so....the patient doesn't require any monitoring and the nurses downstairs don't feel comfortable giving the med and don't want to be responsible for it, and it's an IV sedative? Meh, how about "y'all" bring her back up and give something orally and take her back down later. Since she is pretty much well enough to walk out of here right now and this is no kind of emergency."

Or, "I can do that. Let me get my [actual] Versed and how about some romazicon too, and whatever else I will need down there by myself, and by the way I'll be gone for awhile. I'll bring her back up when the PET is done."

Lots of options....

Radonda wasn't part of the conversation between Radiology, the doctor, and the primary nurse who were discussing monitoring vs. unmonitoring. She was just told by the primary nurse that the pt didn't need to be monitored. She didn't know that there was a back and forth as she wouldn't because she was tasking and not the primary nurse.

So everybody that gets Benzos for Anxiety has an order for Romazicon too? I never see that order in my work site and we give Benzos quite often for anxiety. 

I'm not saying Radonda isn't at fault. She IS and she knows that. She has never attempted to lie or cover up what she did. She has taken responsibility. At the end of the day, she ignored several safe guards and made a HUGE mistake and is paying the price. 

What I'm saying is that there could have been better advocacy for this patient that could have prevented this error. Vanderbilt was caught trying to cover up a sentinel event, they were caught, and she was the scapegoat.

Should she lose her job and license? YES. Should she go to jail? No. 

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5 minutes ago, ForeverYoung018 said:

She was just told by the primary nurse that the pt didn't need to be monitored. She didn't know that there was a back and forth as she wouldn't because she was tasking and not the primary nurse.

The whole monitored/unmonitored was irrelevant. She knew what she was supposedly pushing, and she should have known how a nurse would monitor that scenario (and by monitoring I mean everything from "visual line of sight" all the way up to the most invasive monitoring. That is to say that she should have known not to push Versed and bounce, leaving the patient alone in a holding area. Whether or not the patient was monitored prior to RVs arrival is irrelevant. She did go there, and she saw the situation.

9 minutes ago, ForeverYoung018 said:

So everybody that gets Benzos for Anxiety has an order for Romazicon too? I never see that order in my work site and we give Benzos quite often for anxiety. 

I didn't say that. I said that I would obtain said order if I were going outside of a fully equipped nursing unit to push a benzo. I don't care what you do or see, my comment was in regard to what I would do (and what I have done, by the way). I've never had to use it. But I like to be prepared when I don't have all of my usual contingencies (such as the entire ED staff and equipment) accompanying me.

12 minutes ago, ForeverYoung018 said:

What I'm saying is that there could have been better advocacy for this patient that could have prevented this error.

Yes! I have already written out how I would have advocated.

14 minutes ago, ForeverYoung018 said:

Vanderbilt was caught trying to cover up a sentinel event, they were caught, and she was the scapegoat.

If you happen across my previous posts you might find that I have already stated similar. However, I only think it's (similar to) a "scapegoat" scenario because the others weren't taken down with her, and they should have been-- NOT that she shouldn't have been taken down because they weren't. Big difference.

 

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Geriatrics, Wound Care.

I didn't look into the trial. Had she ever given Vec before? Perhaps if that medication required a competency before being to overrirde, it could have helped prevent it. (Such as her recognizing it was a powder not a liquid).

 

I've had pharmacy accidentally fill liquid zofran instead of heparin (same size bottle, but different color), and have seen other similar fill mistakes (different situation, obviously). But, was able to identify it simply by sight recollection, I did not have to read the label. And now with so many hospitals having portable scanning devices (cell phones), it will reduce the scanning before giving medication.

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23 minutes ago, CalicoKitty said:

I didn't look into the trial. Had she ever given Vec before? Perhaps if that medication required a competency before being to overrirde, it could have helped prevent it. (Such as her recognizing it was a powder not a liquid).

In her statement to the TBI (I think it was them vs the CMS) she states that she thought it was unusual that she had to reconstitute it because she had never done that with Versed before yet, despite that, she still did not check the name of the medication on the vial.  

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Specializes in NICU.
On 3/23/2022 at 11:36 AM, Wuzzie said:

Can you imagine her with one of these...

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I wonder if she would bother looking where she's shooting. 

When she drives back to Vanderbilt with it, I don't think she will care what she is shooting at.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Hospice, triage.

Thank God I have about 10 years left before I retire. I worked in the hospital for about 10 years of my nursing career. We were always short staffed, overloaded, always rushing. I was in fear for my license many times. There is no amount of money that would ever get me back to the bedside.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
5 hours ago, Wuzzie said:

An earlier comment when she accused the prosecutors of lying and states “that’s on them not on me” and then the inappropriate TikTok video the day she was sentenced. It’s just the overall picture of her making bad decisions and her comportment are off-putting to me. I’m not at all convinced of her remorse although I also realize that whether I believe in it or not is of no consequence. 

I don't have TikTok, but generally I would agree that if likability is what determines this sort of thing then she won't do well.

And I'm not clear what "lies"she was referring to, although if I had to guess the prosecutions legal nurse consultant wildly misrepresented what the legal standard of care on a number of topics, which seemed problematic since that was the basis of the charges.

To use JKL's  example of monitoring after midazolam, would you (or JKL) consider that to be the legal standard of care?

 

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Specializes in NICU.
On 3/24/2022 at 11:35 AM, LPN Retired said:

I wonder why such a dangerous drug was even in the accumed cart . seems like that should only be accessible thru the actual pharmacy in the instance it is going to be administered by an anesthesiologist. 

 

We have Rocuronium in our Pyxis for rapid sequence intubation.

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2 hours ago, JKL33 said:

If you happen across my previous posts you might find that I have already stated similar. However, I only think it's (similar to) a "scapegoat" scenario because the others weren't taken down with her, and they should have been-- NOT that she shouldn't have been taken down because they weren't. Big difference.

 

Yes. This is what has raised my hackles.

In the classic sense,  at least in the way I understand it, the scapegoat is an innocent party. Or at least completely undeserving of the punishment given while the guilty party is let off the hook. 

And yet I've heard her referred to as a scapegoat by so many.

There is not a scapegoat in this case. Even though one party seems to have escaped justice, no one has taken the blame for them

 

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