RaDonda Vaught Update - State Health Officials Reverse Decision and File Medical Disciplinary Charges
Tennessee State Health officials have reversed their prior ruling that RaDonda Vaught's fatal medical error did not warrant professional discipline. Charges that will affect her license have now been filed.
We have had multiple discussions here on allnurses about RaDonda Vaught’s fatal medical error two years ago in which she accidentally administered a fatal dose of a paralytic drug to a patient. Many have expressed opinions pro and con regarding the Tennessee Department of Health’s decision that RaDonda’s error did not warrant professional discipline. Not much additional information has been released about the case...until now.
Although this information was not made public until this week, on September 27, 2019, the decision was reversed by the Tennessee Board of Nursing and RaDonda is now being criminally prosecuted and being charged with unprofessional conduct and abandoning or neglecting a patient that required care...
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“The new medical discipline charges, which accuse her of unprofessional conduct and neglecting a patient that required care, are separate from the prosecution and only impact her nursing license.”
Vaught’s attorney was quoted in an email saying, “
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"It seems obvious that the District Attorney’s Office and the Tennessee Department of Health are working in concert in the pending criminal/administrative matters,” Strianse wrote in an email, adding later: “The Board of Health likely feels some public pressure to reverse its position in light of the attention that has surrounded this unfortunate accident.”
In February, Vaught was charged with reckless homicide and impaired adult abuse. In a previous court appearance, Vaught publicly admitted she made a mistake but pleaded not guilty to all criminal charges.
Since Vaught's arrest, this case elicited an outcry from nurses and medical professionals across the country. Many have accused prosecutors of criminalizing an honest mistake.
“That's what the poll in the OP shows. As far as I know, no one in this thread has actually said that any of us could make her mistakes. Of course, if you dig deeply enough you'll always find a few people to support any viewpoint, no matter how extreme, but there's no overarching precedent of support amongst nurses for felony charges for med errors, and having nurses argue against that is no evidence of declining standards or any change at all that I know of. ”
Allnurses is not the only platform discussing this case. Go to the GoFundMe account and read the comments. It will make you doubt our profession.
I personally, can not, will not, go back to the old handwritten medical record and printed out MAR's, getting meds out of a box in the med room, that I was accustomed to as a new nurse in the early 90's.
“That's what the poll in the OP shows. As far as I know, no one in this thread has actually said that any of us could make her mistakes. Of course, if you dig deeply enough you'll always find a few people to support any viewpoint, no matter how extreme, but there's no overarching precedent of support amongst nurses for felony charges for med errors, and having nurses argue against that is no evidence of declining standards or any change at all that I know of. ”
Allnurses is not the only platform discussing this case. Go to the GoFundMe account and read the comments. It will make you doubt our profession.
Fair enough, but there's an obvious kind of self-selection problem with taking the comments on her gofundme page as representative. That's a bit like claiming that its a popular opinion that Nickelback were the greatest band of the 2000s based on comments from their fan page.
Nursing, like just about anything else, takes all kinds. And every once in a while you can find a whole lot of one particular kind gathered up in one particular place where someone has figured out how to monetize them.
“Fair enough, but there's an obvious kind of self-selection problem with taking the comments on her gofundme page as representactive. ”
Of course it’s representative. Those are nurses just like the nurses here. Why would they count less? I said a “faction” I did not say nurses as a whole. The very fact that there are nurses giving her money, a lot of money, because they believe she’s being wronged and that she made a little mistake who also believe that this could happen to any one of us is disturbing.
“Fair enough, but there's an obvious kind of self-selection problem with taking the comments on her gofundme page as representactive. ”
Of course it’s representative. Those are nurses just like the nurses here. Why would they count less? I said a “faction” I did not say nurses as a whole. The very fact that there are nurses giving her money, a lot of money, because they believe she’s being wronged and that she made a little mistake who also believe that this could happen to any one of us is disturbing.
If they represent a relatively obscure minority of nurses' views on the matter, why are we worrying about how the ethical/accountability standards of nurses as whole are declining?
Or did you not understand why it's reasonable to assume they represent a minority viewpoint?
“If they represent a relatively obscure minority of nurse's views on the matter, why are we worrying about how the ethical/accountability standards of nurses as whole are declining?
Or did you not understand why it's reasonable to assume they represent a minority viewpoint?”
How do you know that they are a small minority? There are other platforms with plenty of nurses who share the same viewpoint. YouTube. Facebook. Comments on media sites. How do you know WE aren’t in the minority. And why do you keep insinuating that I’m feeble-minded and incapable of understanding anything? It’s really getting old.
How do you know that they are a small minority? There are other platforms with plenty of nurses who share the same viewpoint. YouTube. Facebook. Comments on media sites. How do you know WE aren’t in the minority. And why do you keep insinuating that I’m feeble-minded and incapable of understanding anything? It’s really getting old.
This site is far more likely to be a representative sample of nurses than a comments section on RVs gofundme. I already explained why. And right now we have no other actual data points to compare. You're welcome to dig up some if you care to. I don't particularly.
And I don't assume you're dumb. Rather I see you repeatedly strawmanning the bejeezus out of those who disagree with you along with implying that we must all be morally and ethically deficient in order to hold our opinions, then just barely backing off those strawman attacks while doubling down on the ad hoc ones as soon as someone challenges them.
It was very reasonable to conclude that all those nurses with lowered standards you mentioned initially were meant to refer to those you disagreed with in this thread. I seriously doubt you would have clarified that it meant "some other nurses out there somewhere but certainly not here, who represent a sizable portion of our profession just because I say so and all samples are equally valid," if I hadn't interjected.
That's the one thing that isn't entirely clear. Because we interchangeably verbally use the brand and generic names it's hard to tell from the documentation what exactly was typed in for the order. They say Versed was ordered but it very well could have been typed in as Midazolam and the nurse who asked her to give it more than likely said "Versed". Yes, I know this is pure speculation but I'm extremely familiar with the drug and in all my time working with it I've never hear a co-worker call it Midazolam and this has been in several institutions and different jobs. I would have to think that is more the norm but it certainly speaks to a need for change.
I think I can help with this one a little. The order would have said midazolam (versed) in epic. However, what is important is what would have shown in the accudose. The accudose has options when searching where you chose generic vs brand. If you are on "generic" and type in ve... versed will never populate as you would have to search it under "brand". I'm not sure if that is how all of them are programmed, but this is the case there for sure.
Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.
6 minutes ago, TNPedsRN13 said:
I think I can help with this one a little. The order would have said midazolam (versed) in epic. However, what is important is what would have shown in the accudose. The accudose has options when searching where you chose generic vs brand. If you are on "generic" and type in ve... versed will never populate as you would have to search it under "brand". I'm not sure if that is how all of them are programmed, but this is the case there for sure.
That's what I assumed the whole time. Thanks for the confirmation from an insider.
“And I don't assume you're dumb. Rather I see you repeatedly strawmanning the bejeezus out of those who disagree with you along with implying that we must all be morally and ethically deficient in order to hold our opinions, then just barely backing off those strawman attacks while doubling down on the ad hoc ones as soon as someone challenges them”
I’ve done no such thing. I haven’t attacked you or anyone else. You have repeatedly put words in my mouth, implied that I’m having difficulty grasping concepts as “complicated” as an ADC. Give me an example of me calling you or anyone else morally and ethically deficient. A direct quote. You tried to bait me into calling you a liar and when I wouldn’t because I don’t think you are you switched tactics to accusing me of implying that you are one. Give me an example of an ad hoc [sic]attack on a poster. I think you meant ad hominem. A direct quote please where I attacked the character of a poster instead of the subject. I have just as much right as anybody here to express my opinion and have had some great discussions with people whose opinion differs from mine (hi Muno) I do love a good debate. How about the many straw man arguments that you feel I’ve put forth. Give me an example. Not something you inferred but a quoted example. You’ve made an amazing amount of assumptions about me and done your best to paint me in as negative a light as possible and the crazy thing is I think we actually agree about the RV thing. I’ve extended the olive branch several times and you continue to crap on it. I’ll extend it one more time and then I’m done. I’d like to continue discussing the topic of the thread with you but would like you to keep your personal opinion about me out of it.
“I think I can help with this one a little. The order would have said midazolam (versed) in epic. However, what is important is what would have shown in the accudose. The accudose has options when searching where you chose generic vs brand. If you are on "generic" and type in ve... versed will never populate as you would have to search it under "brand". I'm not sure if that is how all of them are programmed, but this is the case there for sure. ”
Yes, that’s how it works in our system but they removed the “brand name” option some time ago. I just wish the documentation in the reports was a little more clear.
Wuzzie
5,238 Posts
“That's what the poll in the OP shows. As far as I know, no one in this thread has actually said that any of us could make her mistakes. Of course, if you dig deeply enough you'll always find a few people to support any viewpoint, no matter how extreme, but there's no overarching precedent of support amongst nurses for felony charges for med errors, and having nurses argue against that is no evidence of declining standards or any change at all that I know of. ”
Allnurses is not the only platform discussing this case. Go to the GoFundMe account and read the comments. It will make you doubt our profession.