RaDonda Vaught - What is she doing now?

What are your thoughts about the trial, the conviction, and the sentencing? Watch the video below to see what Radonda Vaught is doing now. Please complete the survey. Nurses General Nursing Article

Updated:   Published

  1. Do you agree that this case should have been tried in a court of law?

    • 28
      YES
    • 57
      NO

  2. Do you agree with the conviction?

    • 33
      YES
    • 52
      NO

  3. Do you agree with the sentencing? 3 years supervised probation and judicial diversion dismissing the conviction following probation, preserving a clean record with it expunged or completely removed. .

    • 49
      Agree with 3 year Probation and Judicial Diversion
    • 29
      Agree with 3 year Probation but not Judicial Diversion
    • 7
      Disagree with sentence. She should go to prison

  4. She should get her license reinstated upon completion of 3 - year probation

    • 32
      YES
    • 53
      NO

85 members have participated

RaDonda Vaught - What is she doing now?

We've followed the Radonda Vaught case from beginning to end including the trial and the recent sentencing.  Nurses have had differing opinions from the beginning - with some change in opinions with the revelation of the details of the fatal event.

But what about the sentence - 3 years supervised probation with the opportunity for Judicial Diversion upon the successful completion of the 3-year probationary period.  What does this mean?

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."

What are your thoughts about this?  Take our short survey....

You might be interested in what Radonda Vaught's thoughts are following the trial and sentencing and what she is doing now .

Here is a video of an interview Radonda had with Eva Pilgrim on Nightline about her tragic mistake that left a patient dead and the unprecedented criminal charges and conviction that followed.

What are your thoughts?  Please take the survey and post additional comments below.

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tnbutterfly - Mary

About tnbutterfly - Mary, BSN

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

I wish the TN BON had done their job right the first time. I would have been okay with her nursing license forever taken away. 

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

Also, I REALLY hate that she has become the poster-child for nurses. Not all of us are rallying around her.

I predict a book deal in her future.

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Specializes in ER.

She's living the good life, feeding the sheep and enjoying the country life. She's recovering well from the trauma of being victimized by that awful hospital and losing her career of serving humanity as a nurse. Now she can fulfill her true calling of advocating for her many followers. She should start a Youtube channel. ?

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

While I think the husband apparently the children were forgiving saying their mother wouldn't want her to go to jail.  For balance it would have been nice to hear from them but I can understand them not wanting to talk about it in the press.

No way, no how is there any excuse other than negligence for what Ms. Vaught did, but a criminal charge of murder and jail time doesn't sit right with me.

Again, no excuses for what she did but I would like to highlight what Ms. Vinsant said in the video and these are facts:   "We'll spend an entire 12 hour shift not going to the bathroom, not eating, not drinking enough water...you get to the end of the day and you're just mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted. The system is set up to make it easy for us to make a mistake like this."

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Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).
15 minutes ago, Tweety said:

"We'll spend an entire 12 hour shift not going to the bathroom, not eating, not drinking enough water...you get to the end of the day and you're just mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted. The system is set up to make it easy for us to make a mistake like this."

Except none of these things applied to RaDonda on the day in question.

Hppy

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^This, a thousand times this. I keep hearing all this misinformation and it's making me nuts. "She was floating and in an unfamiliar unit". Nope, she was an extra nurse on her very own unit. "They were short staffed" Nope, they were overstaffed which is why she was functioning as a resource nurse. "She was helping all units and overwhelmed". Nope, she was only working on her unit which, after 2 years, one would think she was comfortable working. "She was tired from 12 hour shifts". Nope, she denied this. Also, interesting to note that 12 hours shifts are being made out to sound awful but many nurses bristle at the idea of going back to 8 hour shifts. "She wasn't familiar with Versed". Nope, she states she had given it in the last 24 hours. "The Versed wasn't in the Accudose which is why she had to override it". Nope, it had been profiled 10 minutes prior to her attempt to pull it. She couldn't find it because she didn't know the generic name. "She bravely self-reported" Nope, the error was discovered by another nurse and brought to her attention. She had no way to conceal it. "She is representative of how awful things are in nursing and how we are victimized" Nope, she doesn't represent me or my colleagues who daily face the challenges that caring for other humans presents but somehow we manage to read the label on the vials of medication we are about to push. 

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
1 hour ago, Tweety said:

a criminal charge of murder

She wasn’t charged with murder. She was charged with criminally negligent homicide. This would be akin to manslaughter, not murder. 

I think this may be where some get hung up over the charges. Homicide is merely (legally) a manner of death caused by another person. 

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.
1 hour ago, Rose_Queen said:

She wasn’t charged with murder. She was charged with criminally negligent homicide. This would be akin to manslaughter, not murder. 

I think this may be where some get hung up over the charges. Homicide is merely (legally) a manner of death caused by another person. 

I stand corrected.  

I actually do understand that she caused the death of another person but didn't murder her.  Poor choice of words.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.
3 hours ago, hppygr8ful said:

Except none of these things applied to RaDonda on the day in question.

Hppy

Fair enough, but neither myself nor the person said it did.  I said twice for emphasis that there was no excuse for what she did and called it negligence.  

Even under the conditions of the person I quoted which is many a shift I work, that's still not an excuse for making medication errors.  

I do think that it's an important message for the public to hear though.  

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

I've spent a good deal of time thinking about justice as it relates to this case. I do think the hospital failed her, and I would like to hear that someone is being held accountable for the failure to tell the truth to the ME, the failure to report the death/sentinal event. I do not think that a criminal charge was warranted or the best application of justice. I've seen an analysis by an attorney that stated that negligence is when you "should have known better, but didn't". He further said that bad facts make bad law. As for her probation, I mean, she really isn't a threat to anyone, is she? But I'm glad she didn't go to prison, and I'm glad she'll be able to have her record expunged. 

What the case did, though, was make me reevaluate my opinion on certain matters involving law enforcement officers. Particularly, Kim Potter was convicted for killing a man when she clearly intended to use her taser, but used her gun instead. She became aware of it only after she had shot him. My initial take on this was that it was a tragedy, and I had sympathy for her, but that I thought the charge and the conviction were appropriate. After analyzing my reactions to the Vaught case, I have to rethink that. Although the activists will say otherwise, I don't see any evidence that Officer Potter's response held any racial bias. It was a mistake. When is a mistake criminal? We hear a lot about "wrong site" surgeries. No criminal charges. Note: this does not mean that I think there are never reasons to criminally charge either LEOs or healthcare providers. Question: do you think there should be criminal charges for whomever allowed the 14-year-old boy on the amusement park ride in Orlando, from which he fell to his death? Someone "should have known better" and known he was too heavy to safely ride. 

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Can we leave her well alone now that the justice system has pronounced its sentence? 
Let her enjoy the little break from hospital drudgery so many of us resent and yet are loathe to leave.

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