Should RaDonda Vaught Have Her Nursing License Reinstated?

[Nurse Beth]

RaDonda Vaught Seeking Reinstatement of Nursing License

TN state nursing board's 2021 decision to revoke her nursing license will be appealed in court on Tuesday, March 28. If the appeal is successful, she will face a retrial before the Tennessee Board of Nursing.

Nursing boards generally make decisions regarding the reinstatement of nursing licenses based on various factors, including the nature and severity of an offense, the rehabilitation efforts of the individual, and their ability to practice nursing safely and competently.

If RaDonda Vaught has completed the requirements (if any) and demonstrated that she could meet the standards of safe and competent nursing practice, then it may be possible for her to have her RN license reinstated. However, this decision ultimately rests with the state nursing board.

Background

Most of us recall the RaDonda Vaught case in 2017 because it involved a fatal medication error, and she was charged with reckless homicide for the mistake. The decision to prosecute her made history because it set a precedent for criminalizing medical errors.

On December 26, 2017,  RaDonda Vaught, a 35-year-old RN, worked as a "help-all" nurse at the Nashville, Tennessee-based Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She was sent to Radiology Services to administer VERSED (midazolam) to Charlene Murphey, a 75-year-old woman recovering from a brain injury and scheduled for a PET scan.

Charlene Murphey was experiencing anxiety, and her provider ordered Versed, a sedative,  to help her through the procedure. RaDonda entered the letters "ve" for Versed (the brand name) in the automated dispensing cabinet (ADC) search field.

No matches populated the screen under the patient's profile, so RaDonda used the ADC override function and again entered "ve," this time mistakenly selecting vecuronium.

Vecuronium is a neuromuscular blocking agent, and patients must be mechanically ventilated when administered vecuronium. RaDonda reconstituted the drug and administered what she thought was one mg of Versed.

Unaware of her mistake, RaDonda left the patient unmonitored and went on to her next help-all assignment in the ED to conduct a swallow test.

Charlene Murphey was discovered about 30 minutes later by a transporter who noticed she wasn't breathing. She had sustained an unwitnessed respiratory arrest and was pulseless. She was coded, intubated, and taken back to ICU but was brain-dead and died within twelve hours.

Charges and Convictions

Legal System

On February 4th, 2019, RaDonda was indicted and arrested on charges of reckless criminal homicide and impaired adult abuse.

On May 13, 2022, she was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and gross neglect of an impaired adult, and sentenced to 3 years of supervised probation.

Board of Nursing

On September 27, 2019, the TN Department of Health (Nursing Board) reversed its previous decision not to pursue discipline against the nurse and charged RaDonda Vaught with:

• unprofessional conduct,
• abandoning or neglecting a patient, and
• failing to document the error.

On July 23, 2021, at the BON disciplinary trial, the Tennessee (TN) Board of Nursing revoked RaDonda Vaught's professional nursing license indefinitely, fined her $3,000, and stipulated that she pay up to $60,000 in prosecution costs. 

Controversial

Many opposed RaDonda Vaught being charged with a crime, including the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN), the Institute of Safe Medicine Practice (ISMP), and the American Nurses Association (ANA).

If nurses fear reporting their errors for fear of criminal charges, it discourages ethical principles of honesty.

But should RaDonda be allowed to practice nursing again?

The (ISMP) felt strongly that revoking her license was a travesty and that the severity of the outcome wrongly influenced the decision. Contributing system errors were minimized, and RaDonda Vaught became the scapegoat, while Vanderbilt escaped full notoriety.

The ISMP said RaDonda displayed human error and at-risk behaviors but not reckless behavior. She did not act with evil intent and is a second victim of a fatal error. In a Just Culture, discipline is not meted out for human error.

Do you think RaDonda Vaught should be allowed to practice nursing again, and why or why not?

Thank you for your thoughts!

[MaxAttack, BSN, RN]

Anna Kasparov said:

non Handmaid's Tale Draconian sisterhood

I have to admit as far as trolls go you're at least humorous. Love it.

[chare]

Quote

RaDonda Vaught was back in court on Tuesday following her widely publicized trial one year ago. Vaught is asking to have her nursing license reinstated through a judicial review after it was revoked.

Vaught was a nurse at Vanderbilt and was convicted of killing patient Charlene Murphey in 2017 by giving her the wrong medicine.

[...]

Former nurse convicted of killing patient in 2017 asks judge to reinstate nursing license

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

chare said:

Former nurse convicted of killing patient in 2017 asks judge to reinstate nursing license

I read this and just SMH

[mtmkjr, BSN]

chare said:

Former nurse convicted of killing patient in 2017 asks judge to reinstate nursing license

"Nurses and healthcare professionals across the country expressed outrage over the case saying a conviction and possible jail time for a mistake made on the job was unfair."

Sigh.

[MaxAttack, BSN, RN]

mtmkjr said:

"Nurses and healthcare professionals across the country expressed outrage over the case saying a conviction and possible jail time for a mistake made on the job was unfair."

Sigh.

"Mistake." Really gives you hope.

[toomuchbaloney]

Clearly too many people have no idea when a professional action is not a mistake but is instead a break of accepted standard of care and becomes negligence.  

Is this a failure of our educating system?  Are we a country that struggles with the notion of accountability? 

[Wuzzie]

Interesting that we aren't hearing much from the people who thought the criminal conviction was too harsh and she should have just lost her license. ?

[Susie2310]

toomuchbaloney said:

Clearly too many people have no idea when a professional action is not a mistake but is instead a break of accepted standard of care and becomes negligence.  

Is this a failure of our educating system?  Are we a country that struggles with the notion of accountability? 

I think it's more than just that some people don't know the difference, although I think this could be part of the problem.  I think that some people are quite comfortable with negligent actions being attributed to "mistakes."  It's very convenient and desirable to not be held accountable for one's negligent actions.  As I see it, putting the spotlight on individuals who practice negligently runs the risk of incurring more widespread practitioner scrutiny, and people are afraid of this and opposed to this as they fear both personal and professional loss for themselves, and also fear not being able to make as much money; e.g., the money train being slowed down.  

I find it shocking that some people apparently want negligent actions in providing care to be routinely blanketed under a smokescreen of "mistakes" and "systems problems" in situations where they are evidently not these categories of actions.  

[RN_SummerSeas, MSN, APRN, NP]

Wuzzie said:

Interesting that we aren't hearing much from the people who thought the criminal conviction was too harsh and she should have just lost her license. ?

I can tell you why you don't hear from me, it's because I don't agree with you. Anyone who doesn't agree with you, or others like you, has a hoard of people jumping in to say how wrong one is, did they read the documents, etc. and you appear to feel your opinion is the only correct one. You aren't changing my views and I am certainly never going to attempt to change yours or anyone else for that matter. This thread has just gone in an ugly, negative place and I stepped away because why stay?  I keep getting notifications even though I turned them off, which is why I am posting now, after turning it on and off so I can avoid dealing with the negativity that permeates this thread. Life is to damn short to argue with people I don't know about something that is opinion based, what a waste of a beautiful day.  But you can feel free to jump all over this post too, whatever floats your boat. Peace out.

[Wuzzie]

RN_SummerSeas said:

I can tell you why you don't hear from me, it's because I don't agree with you.

You know, it isn't all about you. In fact, you weren't even on my radar when I posted.

Again I invite you to put me on ignore since I seem to bug you so much. 

[MaxAttack, BSN, RN]

toomuchbaloney said:

Clearly too many people have no idea when a professional action is not a mistake but is instead a break of accepted standard of care and becomes negligence.  

Is this a failure of our educating system?  Are we a country that struggles with the notion of accountability? 

I personally tend to blame it on a couple things:

1. As part of the larger climate where everything is black and white, good or bad, trench warfare "us vs them" that's seen in everything from politics, gender identify, and police shootings.

2. Too many people forming their opinions based on influencers, TikToks, and headlines without diving into a deeper understanding or looking at context. You read something along the lines of "Nurse Convicted for Mistake" and automatically think of the times you've made a mistake without bothering to learn how egregious this incidence was.

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

Susie2310 said:

I find it shocking that some people apparently want negligent actions in providing care to be routinely blanketed under a smokescreen of "mistakes" and "systems problems" in situations where they are evidently not these categories of actions.  

Until it becomes someone that they love