For those of you who are following the Radonda Vaught case, she was a guest on the podcast Good Nurse Bad Nurse on January 18, 2022. (For those not familiar with this case, search for Radonda Vaught and read the threads on the case. It was discussed extensively.)
I stumbled across the podcast when searching for when her trial starts.
Spoiler alert - she's the "Good Nurse" featured on the podcast.
The host gives a version of the case starting about 30 minutes 30 seconds. Radonda starts speaking around 40 minutes.
I'm surprised her lawyer would allow her to speak publicly.
You realize the dangerous precedent this is going to set if we allow healthcare workers to be criminally charged for making human errors?
Look up Juan De La Cruz' posts about it. The precedent was set 20 years ago. We're not seeing throngs of nurses being thrown into prison and we won't now. This was not a simple medication error. This was not a human error. This was a nurse who practiced in a manner that was so egregiously unsafe she killed a patient and she should be held accountable to the highest level.
Look up Juan De La Cruz' posts about it. The precedent was set 20 years ago. We're not seeing throngs of nurses being thrown into prison and we won't now. This was not a simple medication error. This was not a human error. This was a nurse who practiced in a manner that was so egregiously unsafe she killed a patient and she should be held accountable to the highest level.
You can kill a patient with a simple error particularly in the ICU, an honest mistake.
Losing her license, her career and livelihood and being put on social media blast I would say is more than enough of a punishment.
A medical profession made a medical error. Let those in charge of her licensure deal out the consequences and let the criminal system deal with actual criminals.
As far as I am aware nurses don't enjoy any measure of qualified immunity that protects us from prosecution should we harm or kill another as we do our jobs.
I think she should lose her license...but I don't think she should be criminally charged as that is a precedent that I don't want to take. Nurses are human beings and human being make mistakes. This, unfortunately, was one that ended someone's life.
In the state of Tennessee, a licensed nurse retains a "property right" to the license. The Board can away the license, but RV can petition down the road to get it back. Whether she will be employed in a nursing field is another question.
No she did not make an error. She made several very, very bad choices. Big difference.
I'm not disagreeing with that, but the criminal justice system isn't the answer. The answer is barring her from ever practicing as a nurse and ensuring that this mistake never happens again.
NO ONE should be allowed such easy access to a paralytic for vec. NO ONE should be able to override for such a medication. This should come directly from pharmacy to the direct hands of a physician.
NO ONE should be allowed such easy access to a paralytic for vec. NO ONE should be able to override for such a medication. This should come directly from pharmacy to the direct hands of a physician.
I get what you're saying but that isn't practical for many situations. As a nurse I frequently gave Vec (among other dangerous medications) and sometimes needed it emergently. That being said, I cared enough about my patients to be extremely careful when I was using it and did my job like I was supposed to.
I'm not disagreeing with that, but the criminal justice system isn't the answer. The answer is barring her from ever practicing as a nurse and ensuring that this mistake never happens again.
NO ONE should be allowed such easy access to a paralytic for vec. NO ONE should be able to override for such a medication. This should come directly from pharmacy to the direct hands of a physician.
That's not practical given that nurses are the professionals administering the drug in many instances. Would you recommend that any and all drugs that could kill a patient with a single injection be hand distributed by physicians?
That's not practical given that nurses are the professionals administering the drug in many instances. Would you recommend that any and all drugs that could kill a patient with a single injection be hand distributed by physicians?
Of course not, but vec is not an every day med like insulin with a much less room for error.
Something as dangerous as vec should have safety guards. No one should be able to override to access vec.
29 minutes ago, Wuzzie said:
I get what you're saying but that isn't practical for many situations. As a nurse I frequently gave Vec (among other dangerous medications) and sometimes needed it emergently. That being said, I cared enough about my patients to be extremely careful when I was using it and did my job like I was supposed to.
Were you by yourself when you gave vec? Vec shouldn't be administered with just a nurse at the bedside. There should be someone who can intubate and run a code if something goes wrong. In this case, it seems like the only one present when RV gave the med was her orientee.
Of course not, but vec is not an every day med like insulin with a much less room for error.
Something as dangerous as vec should have safety guards. No one should be able to override to access vec.
Were you by yourself when you gave vec? Vec shouldn't be administered with just a nurse at the bedside. There should be someone who can intubate and run a code if something goes wrong. In this case, it seems like the only one present when RV gave the med was her orientee.
I've worked in situations where vec was an "everyday" med. Nurses administer dangerous injections and medications all of the time.
Wuzzie
5,242 Posts
I 100%, but respectfully ?, disagree. However, I won't opine about it here as I made my case in the other threads about the subject.