Speechless. Just . . . speechless.
Title says it all. Provided with only one comment: IMO someone desperately needs to lose their job over this – and maybe their certification(s).
Category: Veteran Health Care, Veterans' Affairs Department
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I wonder if he has the same employment protection as the VA SESs
In theory, even more – the AFGE doesn’t generally go to bat for SES/other supervisors when they get in trouble.
That said, in this case there’s apparently hard evidence of egregious misconduct – as well as major publicity of same. This guy may well haben selbst gefickt.
Ummmm, yeah, that is my state. . . . . great.
And he’s probably just “that one” who was caught. I wonder if the AFGE will screech if they try to take action against him for that OR they’ll do something to him versus the managers that skated, we’ve seen that “some animals are more equal than others”.
That was on the news last night. Whoever let him do that needs to be horsewhipped and lose his license.
Ah yes…..the VA and the Merit Systems protection Board will handle this.
I even managed to type the above with a straight face.
Even if the feds thefedsdo nothing about this intixicated nurse, a complaint to the state that holds his nursing license will lead to him losing his nursing license.
Even if the VA does not fire him, he would have to become a janitor since he could no longer practice in the nursing field.
He was staggering, ill tempered, and doubtless stinking of booze and disheveled AND NO ONE SAID OR DID ANYTHING!? A physician’s assistant (that’s an MD who doesn’t play golf)did nothing. Was that because the booze hound usually arrives at work drunk? Who else saw this guy and did nothing? This is a problem. If the surgery patient was their friend or loved one, would they have remained silent? Heads need to roll–starting with the drunk and the PA.
Ditto that, I’m sure they didn’t do anything because nobody wanted to “rock the boat” and now they have to deal with the shit they threw into their own fan!
Agreed, not the first time this shitbag has pulled this crap.
I’ve got a different perspective on this. (I’ve been an RN for twelve years). People screw up; and he needs to be held accountable. He endangered his team, his patient and himself. That said, nursing is a profession rife with psychological, physiological and emotional stressors. Nurses (and even other healthcare professionals, like physicians) haven high substance abuse rates. He needs to face disciplinary action for his decisions, but he also needs to be treated with compassion; namely a substance abuse diversion program. He’s been a nurse since 1979;that’s almost 37 years of professional nursing with no history of board action. He doesn’t need to loose his liscence. A six month suspension, and a couple years of restriction, as well as a substance abuse diversion program to make sure he’s taken care of.
*Having said his piece, ANCCPT digs in, puts on his ACH, strings concertina wire and prepares defend his position.*
Compassion is not my first response regarding this shitbag.
Would you feel exactly the same if the operation had gone badly, the patient had died – and the patient was a close relative of yours?
That could easily have happened. Instead God was merciful, and allowed a different outcome in spite of this individual’s misconduct and others doing nothing.
Perhaps it’s past time for this individual to “call it a career”.
Well, here’s the thing. If this guy is an alcoholic, then that condition didn’t happen suddenly. And that’s my main beef. Drunks get noticed—even maintenance drinkers who only get totally shit faced now and then but who otherwise seen normal but are actually under the influence. In this case, some number of staff at the hospital dropped the ball repeatedly. If he is an alcoholic, Pennsylvania’s impaired professional law might save his ass but it should not save those who remained silent. Alternatively, if he’s not an alcoholic in need of treatment, then his being three sheets to the wind when he showed up at work should have prompted an immediate intervention to relieve him and get him home in a cab or call someone to pick him up. Either way, in my view, heads should roll, starting with the PA.
In my book, the nurse who showed up drunk should take the biggest hit, 2/17. That individual was the one who committed the affirmative act of showing up for duty drunk. (And I don’t care if they were an alcoholic or not; that’s irrelevant.)
But yeah, IMO the PA who stood by and let him perform surgical duties while drunk has “some ‘splaining to do” as well.
Damn right the PA should be held accountable for not stepping up and saying something!
Florence Nightingale Pledge:
I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly, to pass my life in purity and to practice my profession faithfully. I will abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous, and will not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug. I will do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession, and will hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping and all family affairs coming to my knowledge in the practice of my calling. With loyalty will I endeavor to aid the physician in his work, and devote myself to the welfare of those committed to my care.
How’s this, ANCCPT?
https://youtu.be/FkW35T1jQB0
Foster Brooks is funny. It ain’t so funny in real time.
If I could see the future, the MSPB will say, “Well, others show up to work drunk and haven’t been punished, so we’re reversing any punitive decision made against him.”
Philly.com is reporting that the Demented Physician’s Assistant has resigned from the hospital.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20160303_ap_d1ae3b6416264fd1a22adffdb2258caa.html
Well, the nurse is back in the news. The state is dropping its charges against him and the feds are charging him. It turns out that back in 1985 he was charged with a hit and run in which a Veteran was killed. Nursey evidently hit the poor SOB and then drove home where, the next day, police visited him. Under the circumstances, nursey was not charged with vehicular homicide. More recently, nursey’s wife swore that he physically assaulted her while he was drunk. Sick stuff that this guy was working as a nurse. Go for it, ANCCPT.