Covid Nurse Heroes Now Felon
Nursing professional has no protection from the Board of Nursing, large medical facilities, or members within their own peer group. The care provided to you and those you love is threatened.
The professional registered nurse (RN) career choice is linked to caring for others. The Board of Nursing (BON) governed the licensed professionals within the state of practice to protect the public from harm. Why did this honest nurse lose their RN license and income? She also must live with the knowledge of accidental death due to mistake and go to prison? Do you believe that this is the first medication error that has resulted in death? nurse felony
Article by Brett Kelman, Former nurse found guilty in accidental injection death of a 75-year-old patient. March 25, 2022. The humanity of the profession of nursing and its regulators has been missing the mark for a long time. Interestingly, 81 % of the American public ranks nurses second in trustworthiness. In contrast, Lobbyists and Congress members tied for the worst-rated, with six out of 10 Americans ranking their ethics low. However, the governing body of nurses depends on favors from this least trusted group.
All boards of nursing government evaluate applications for nurse licensure, issue and renew nursing licenses, and take disciplinary actions when needed by the board of nursing. When discipline is required” is neither defined nor clear. When a human mistake is made, or the facility has poor check and balance for medication distribution, identification of patients? How about a nurse mandated to work over?
Other responsibilities that a board of nursing might take on, depending on the state, include:
1. Authorizing the use of licensing examinations
The nursing exam applicant must pass boards to obtain a license and practice as a registered nurse.
Schools approved by BON are the only ones allowed to have students sit to take boards.
Nursing students do not enter the profession at the same level of education. Another issue noted for decades within nursing practice. The nurse can be a graduate of a two, four, or master level education and graduate.
2. Approving nursing education programs that meet established criteria
The above responsibility of BON helps control and gatekeep nursing education programs that experience disparity. This also allows it to manage the number of nurses in practice.
Community colleges politically connected in Illinois not certified by the BON were allowed to keep an unaccredited program open for years. This is not the case with programs lacking political and financial clout.
While, smaller underrepresented nursing educational programs in poor communities must invest time and money to bring programs in alignment with accreditation. They must also do much more with fewer resources by the BON.
3. Offering advice to the legislature about determining the state’s legal scope of nursing practice.
Unification of the nursing program’s entrance academically would clarify consistent nursing practice and provide a cohesive, less ambiguous nurse practice act. The issues long existing within the nursing community and discussed for decades include:
Implementation of the safety check and balances to reduce medication errors
Hold accountable extensive, prosperous health care facilities to make sure patient care distribution is reasonable and fair to all nurses.
Where is the caring BON representation for the nurse making a human mistake? The BON says they discipline when necessary. When is discipline necessary? During covid, nurses were called heroes, a felon, not even a year later? Health care worker (HCW) narrative and public relations as a means by which the public and politicians can assuage their guilt and feign appreciation. Despite acting for decades in ways that undermine health services, failing to prepare adequately for the pandemic, and, now, failing to engage in adequate social distancing and provide HCWs with good personal protective equipment (PPE) (Darlow 2020; Miller 2020; Mathers and Kitchen 2020):
For some Health Care Workers (HCW), the moral injury associated with lack of reciprocity has exacerbated their sense that they are being “bullied,” “shamed,” and “emotionally blackmailed” by hospital managers and the government for demanding or allegedly missing PPE (Child) 2020 https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/uk-missed-eu-coronavirus-scheme-ppe-nhs-staff-a4413571.html.
4. Regulating nurse aides/nursing assistants and medication aides/assistants working in the nursing home and home health care settings
Nurses became the sacrificial young to be eaten by nurses and political forces during Covid. There is a phenomenon of hostility among nurses and certified nursing assistants (CNAs), commonly referred to as “nurses eating their young.”
This incivility is pervasive, often seen as a rite of passage, and directed at both peers and those at diverse levels in the organization. Those who show this hostility justify it by asserting that a hired nurse or Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA) is initiated through a trial to be included in the facility’s team. Sadly, bullying has been the acceptable form of initiation for too long. There was no provision for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), but the media gave a lot of press about the shortage of respiratory machines. This equipment shortage during Covid would allow more focus on the failings of physicians.
Why isn’t the BON coming to support the nurse who made a mistake? This nurse facing prison time owned her mistake, no doubt, to save the patient’s life. She wanted to do what she could to keep the patient possibly—nurses respect life. Doctors and health facilities often consider the nurse dispensable. So, under the bus, nurses often willingly go for the sake of the patient. That is to maintain confidence in the provider with the realization that hope, trust, and belief are basic emotions to support superior patient outcomes.
Where is the voice of protection, humanity, and appreciation of the heroes? One nurse voiced feelings of nurses caught between facility demands and potential BON discipline. The BON legislates nursing that has little to do with supporting or promoting patient care and health outcomes.
“If I walk away from this nightmare, they will accuse me of patient abandonment. However, if I don’t walk, I risk my health and life and my family job abandonment, Does no one care?” The RN that leaves her job because of a threat to the patient or self-safety can be disciplined by the BON.
Examination and investigating ways to address and do away with the lack of civility among fellow peers would help improve positive patient outcomes. Reducing stress associated with bullying, intimidation, and behaviors will reduce medication errors and surgical errors and improve effective patient recovery. Standard educational requirements and entry into nursing care would occur with the support of all nursing programs without the same political and financial backing as other facilities.
Permission to throw the RN professional, governed by the figurehead BON, under the bus and jail for a human error sets a dangerous precedence for you, the patient. The public rating of trustworthiness for the nurse will have devastating outcomes for patient/client health and wellness.