Accusations of negligence are something that a nurse attorney could be of great help for some nurses. However, some nurses tend to forget this fact because they really felt like they should be responsible even if they never intended to commit such an error.
On or about March 27, 2009, an LVN from Austin failed to clarify an order with the physician for Reglan 20 mg. to be administered to a patient, a 19-month old, and instead twice administered the 20 mg dose, which exceeded the recommended dose for an adult.
Her conduct was could have resulted in complications from an overdose of Reglan, including central nervous system dysfunction.
On or about August 21, 2009, the LVN failed to administer and failed to ensure that all of the medications scheduled for 0900 hours were administered to a patient by the patient’s mother. The unlabeled syringes containing medications were later found by another nurse at the bedside.
Additionally, she inappropriately documented in patient’s medical record that she had administered the medications. Her conduct was likely to injure the patient in that failure to administer medications as ordered could have resulted in non-efficacious treatment and resulted in an inaccurate, incomplete medical record, which was likely to injure that patient in that subsequent caregivers would not have accurate information on which to base their care decisions.
This issue was filed as a complaint and sent to the Texas Board of Nursing. The Texas Board of Nursing has full jurisdiction in all cases that may affect the status of an RN or LVN’s license in the future. But they advise nurses to attend a hearing first before placing the sentence, which the RN attended for her career’s security.
However, the RN failed to attend the hearing or even failed to at least hire a nurse attorney to help her defend her case.
As a result, the Texas Board of Nursing placed her RN license to disciplinary action. It’s too bad that she failed to hire a nurse attorney for assistance, knowing that she had every reason to defend herself in the first place. Her defense would have gotten better if she actually sought legal consultation from a Texas nurse attorney as well.
So if you’re facing a complaint from the Board, it’s best to seek legal advice first. Texas Nurse Attorney Yong J. An is willing to assist every nurse in need of immediate help for nurse licensing cases. To contact him, please dial (832)-428-5679 for a confidential consultation or for more inquiries.