Allegations of negligence have been a signature specialty of a nurse attorney when handling cases 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 December 29, 2010, while employed in a medical facility in Dallas, the LVN failed to assess a patient and intervene when she discovered that she had administered intravenous Dextran in error to this patient. She stopped the infusion when she realized what she had done, but failed to notify the patient’s physician of the error or report to the oncoming nurse the incident.
The LVN’s conduct exposed the patient unnecessarily to a risk of harm from administering IV medications that were not intended for that patient and deprived the patient’s physician, and subsequent care givers, of information on which to base their decisions for further care.
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 LVN attended for her career’s security.
During the hearing, the LVN states that she administered Dextran to the wrong patient. She states that at 04:00 a.m. she hung the Dextran quickly realized she had hung it on the wrong patient and stopped the infusion but forgot to follow up with an incident report because she was very busy at the time and thought she would do it at the end of her shift, but between 04:15 and 06:00 a.m. two patients had hypoglycemia that suspended everything while she helped to stabilize them.
The LVN states that she was assigned to six (6) patients that shift and that the charge nurse left the floor for two (2) hours at around 23:30 p.m. and that at 02:00 a.m. the other two nurses left the floor for a break leaving their patient’s in her care. She states that the next day she was called into the manager’s office and that she went with her letter of resignation.
As a result, the Texas Board of Nursing placed her LVN license to disciplinary action. It’s too bad that she failed to hire a nurse attorney for assistance if 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.