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Tragedy into Policy: A Hepatitis C Outbreak and a Study of Nevada RNs Lead to New Protections for Whistleblowers

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

In 2008, more than 62,000 people who had undergone procedures at one of two southern Nevada endoscopy clinics were notified that “they might have been exposed to bloodborne pathogens, including hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus (HCV), and HIV, as a result of unsafe injection practices.” As author Lisa Black reports in this month’s CE–Original Research feature, a subsequent investigation by federal and state agencies found multiple breaches of infection control protocols. Indeed, 115 patients were found to be “either certainly or presumptively infected” with HCV through the reuse of contaminated medication vials.

Especially distressing was strong anecdotal evidence that because of a general fear of workplace retaliation, staff at the two clinics had often failed to report unsafe patient care conditions. At the request of the Nevada legislature, a study was conducted to examine Nevada RNs’ experiences with workplace attitudes toward patient advocacy activities. Black was the principal investigator. […]

Guest Author2016-11-21T13:12:47-05:00June 7th, 2011|nursing perspective, nursing research|1 Comment

When Patient Safety Trumps All: Conversations With the Texas Whistleblower Nurses

Image via Wikipedia

You may not remember February 11, 2010, all that well, but it’s a date nurse Anne Mitchell will never forget. It was the date she was acquitted of all criminal charges in a case that garnered widespread coverage not only in the nursing world (see our October 2009 report) but in the general media (see the New York Times article). Mitchell was the Texas nurse criminally prosecuted for filing a complaint with the Texas Medical Board against a physician for unsafe and substandard practices (that board did agree with her). She and a colleague found themselves embroiled in a nightmare in which they were fired, arrested, and indicted. (Charges were eventually dismissed against Vicki Galle and only Mitchell went to trial.)

The case raised questions about a nurse’s professional and legal duty to safeguard patients—and about the strength of whistleblower protections (Texas has a whistleblower protection law).

In a “what goes around comes around” scenario, this past February those who pressed the charges—the sheriff (who was a patient, friend, and business partner of the physician); the Winkler County attorney; the former hospital administrator; and the physician—were all indicted by a grand jury. Ironically, the indictment was partially for misuse of official information, the same charge they had brought against the nurses.

On February 18, I interviewed Mitchell, Galle, and another colleague, Naomi Warren, who also wrote a […]

Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, FAAN, editor-in-chief (emerita)2018-03-13T10:43:04-04:00February 25th, 2011|career, nursing perspective|1 Comment

The Real Criminals Here: Justice is Served in Winkler County, Texas, Whistleblower Case

By Maureen ‘Shawn’ Kennedy, AJN editor in chief

On January 13, news from Texas let nurses everywhere take heart that, sometimes, the system works. According to a report by the Odessa American, the Winkler County, Texas, officials, Sheriff Robert Roberts and attorney Scott Tidwell, who had filed charges against whistleblower nurses Anne Mitchell and Vicki Galle, have been indicted on felony charges of misuse of official information. The hospital administrator who fired the two nurses, Stan Wiley, was also indicted. For more on the story, which we’ve kept a close eye on since October 2009 in our news reports and on this blog, see this ABC World News article; the Texas Nurses Association also has an archive of the case.

In a separate civil suit against the county, Mitchell and Galle were awarded $750,000. Very excellent.

Why is this so exciting and significant? The case outcome supports nurses who raise concerns about unsafe patient care and upholds the nurse’s right—duty, really—to advocate for patients. Hopefully, the nurses’ victory and the award from the civil suit will give pause to those who think they can intimidate nurses who are acting on good conscience and within legal and ethical boundaries.

Kudos to the courts for realizing who the real criminals are.

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:14:20-05:00January 17th, 2011|nursing perspective|2 Comments

Web Crawl: Unprofessional Workplace Behavior Irks Nurses; APNs Seek Primary Care Rights; Whistleblowers on Trial; More

Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, AJN interim editor-in-chief

I spend a lot of time checking various web sites for news or new information nurses need to know, for interesting items for blog posts or articles, or for trends that may be coming down the pike. Here’s some “food-for-thought” items I found in my recent web crawls:

On nursingworld.org, the American Nurses Association, in a recent poll, asked site visitors if they had been “a target of unprofessional behavior” in the workplace. A startling 82% of respondents said yes. While “unprofessional behavior” was not defined (when you think about it, it could be any number of things, ranging from gossip and practical jokes to bullying and unwanted sexual advances), the fact that so many people feel this way deserves further exploration. What about you? What have you seen on your unit that might fit this category of “unprofessional behavior”?

Vindy.com, an Ohio news outlet, reports that advanced practice nurses (APNs) in the state want more recognition and freedom to practice. According to the article, the Ohio Association of Advanced Practice Nurses (OAAPN) is seeking legislators to remove restrictions that prevent them from heading the medical home models of primary care. Currently, physicians must be the designated head of the medical home. (See our article on this.) Jacalyn Golden of OAAPN said APNs “have proved themselves since they began providing primary care in 1965.” Amen.

Remember the “Sentosa Nurses,” the nurses from the Philippines who became embroiled in prosecution after they quit en masse from New York nursing […]

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:20:12-05:00January 14th, 2010|Nursing|4 Comments

What Do Nurses Need?
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What Do Nurses Need?

COVID-19, Nursing

What Do Nurses Need?

“Covid-19 Is ‘Probably Going to End My Career’” is the title of my recent column in the New York Times. The nurse who made that statement spoke to me on the condition of anonymity because her hospital doesn’t like having nurses speak out. So—nurses are afraid to publicly complain about their difficulties on the job, struggle with a lack of PPE and short-staffing, and are overwhelmed by the number of deaths they are seeing. All this has led to the nursing profession being in crisis.

The six ideas below could help nurses drowning in difficulties imposed by Covid find their way back to solid ground.

Staffing legislation. This could mean ratios, or some other way to insure that nurses are not expected to work short. The legislation should also require robust nursing float pools and keep secretarial and nursing assistant support at their usual levels. Units have to be staffed in a way that maximally benefits patients, not just to help balance a hospital’s bottom line.
Mental health support. Nurses as a group are not always open to counseling, but during Covid nurses have spoken out about the emotional toll of the work and their ongoing PTSD. They have recognized their need for mental health support. Hospitals must give nurses health insurance that covers individual counseling, and have mental health resources available on the job for nurses. “Covid broke me” is being said by too many nurses, too often.

[…]

Guest Author2021-03-05T09:52:27-05:00March 5th, 2021|COVID-19, Nursing|1 Comment

How’s Your N95 Supply These Days?
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How’s Your N95 Supply These Days?

Nursing

How’s Your N95 Supply These Days?

Since the pandemic began to wreak havoc in the U.S., my first question to bedside nurses has been, “Do you have enough PPE?” To my amazement, even as hospital admissions surged, many nurses told me that yes, they had a good supply of N95s. I quickly learned to be more specific: “How often do you receive a new N95?” Sometimes, the answer was “every shift.” More often, nurses told me “every week,” sometimes adding, “but I cover it with a new surgical mask every day.”

Redefining the PPE norm.

And so, barely a month into the pandemic, nurses had quickly adapted to a new normal. These days, it seems that N95 supplies are “good” when we have any at all. Certainly, nurses continue to protest our lack of PPE. But how did we arrive at this place where we are glad to have any protection at all?

“The lack of essential personal protective equipment (PPE) has been a defining characteristic of the coronavirus pandemic. From the beginning, respiratory protection guidance was driven by shortages of N95 respirators and surgical masks rather than by the well-established standards of infection prevention and control.”

In this month’s AJN Reports, we look at why PPE supplies are still suboptimal and likely to […]

Betsy Todd, MPH, RN2020-06-19T15:07:18-04:00June 19th, 2020|Nursing|1 Comment

Who Will Watch the Watchers? Consider Nurses

Julianna Paradisi, RN, OCN, writes a monthly post for this blog and works as an infusion nurse in outpatient oncology.

Sometimes my surgical mask feels like a gag/by Julianna Paradisi

Does anyone else find it ironic that, while the National Security Agency (NSA) is seeking to extradite and prosecute the contractor who revealed the agency’s alleged widespread spying on ordinary Americans and visitors from other countries, nurses can get fired for far more local breaches of privacy?

When the government gives 500,000 private contractors access to data hoards compiled from the electronic and phone conversations of U.S. citizens, is HIPAA still relevant?

Two years ago, the nurse blogosphere raged over the expulsion of three nursing students for posting the photo of a placenta on Facebook. Today, in light of the NSA’s potentially far-reaching privacy violations, the decidedly insensitive exploits of those students seem a bit less newsworthy.

More famously, the ordeal of Vickilyn Galle and Anne Mitchell, nurses who were fired after they blew the whistle on medical malpractice while exposing a conflict of interest affecting patient safety within the hospital, illustrates the high accountability placed upon nurses to protect patient privacy. […]

Julianna Paradisi, RN, OCN2016-11-21T13:06:59-05:00July 17th, 2013|Ethics, Nursing, Patients|2 Comments

Nurses Under Fire: Cleared in Texas, Embattled in California

By Shawn Kennedy, interim editor-in-chief

By now you’ve probably heard that last Thursday Anne Mitchell, the Texas nurse who found herself fired from her job and on trial after reporting a physician for what she felt was poor medical practice (see our report in the October 2009 issue) was found not guilty (her colleague, Vicki Galle, had her case dismissed prior to trial). It only took the jury about an hour to exonerate Mitchell of criminal charges and uphold her right to advocate for patients. (Day-by-day reports from the trial were made available on the Texas Nurses Association (TNA) Web site.)

The case garnered national attention—at its core was a nurse’s right (duty, really) to safeguard patients in her or his care. It seemed a no-brainer, and almost incredible that the case even came to trial. Last Friday, I spoke with TNA president Susan Sportsman, PhD, RN, who agreed, saying she was surprised the case went forward, especially after the state medical board agreed that what the nurses did was appropriate. Sportsman said, “This is the role of nurses—it’s required that we report what we see to safeguard patients. This nurse was just doing her job, what she was supposed to do.”

Like nurses everywhere, Sportsman was “delighted and ecstatic” about the verdict. Sportsman noted a guilty verdict would have discouraged nurses and others from coming forward about poor care out of fear of losing their jobs and facing prosecution. Perhaps […]

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:19:19-05:00February 16th, 2010|Nursing|3 Comments

Nurse Whistle-Blowers Pay Heavy Price For Doing the Right Thing

By hellosputnik, via Flickr

Late Friday afternoon I spoke with Clair Jordan, the executive director of the Texas Nurses Association. Jordan and others at the TNA have been working in support of two Texas nurse whistleblowers, Anne Mitchell and Vicki Galle, who in June were fired from their jobs, arrested, and indicted on third-degree–felony criminal charges, Jordan said. Mitchell and Galle had filed an anonymous complaint with the Texas Medical Board against a physician at their workplace, Winkler County Memorial Hospital, in Kermit, Texas. The nurses believed the physician to have acted in ways that jeopardized patient care; the complaint, in documenting examples of this care, identified patients by their case number. The physician complained; the local sheriff investigated; charges were filed; the nurses lost their jobs. […]

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:24:30-05:00August 3rd, 2009|Ethics, Nursing|4 Comments

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Redefining the PPE norm.

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