Any RN or LVN who is guilty of violating state laws and issuances from the Texas Board of Nursing (BON) may be subjected to penalties or fines. As a matter of fact, the RN or LVN license can even be suspended or revoked. To avoid this, it is important to look for the right nurse attorney.
The Texas Board of Nursing (BON) is the government agency that has jurisdiction to hear and decide administrative cases involving RN license and LVN license. The BON has the power to suspend and/or revoke the nurse license. It is also the agency that is responsible for overseeing the practice of professional nursing all over the State of Texas.
A perfect example of this happened to an LVN. At the time of the initial incident, the LVN was employed in a hospital in Allen, Texas, and had been in that position for just two months.
On or about December 11, 2016, through December 12, 2016, while employed in a hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, the LVN failed to assess, intervene and notify the physician when a patient had a blood glucose reading of 294 at O 1:04 pm and a blood glucose reading of 317 at 03:19 pm.
In addition, the LVN failed to give Humalog per sliding scale and waited until 03:30 pm to administer Levemir 25 units that were ordered for bedtime. Subsequently, the patient’s condition deteriorated and required transfer to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for a higher level of care.
On or about December 11, 2016, through December 12, 2016the LVN failed to assess and document the assessment of symptoms prior to administering Zofran 4mg oral dissolving tablet to a patient.
As a response to the complaints against her, the LVN states that the patient refused a blood sugar check on admission to the unit because labs had been drawn at the ER in Plano. She states she contacted the physician requesting a history and physical (H&P) and insulin orders.
The LVN further explains the physician came to the unit, saw the patient, and loaded orders into the computer during the period of time that the patient was exhibiting symptoms. Later, after patient awoke, she states she told mental health technician (MHT) to check the patient’s blood sugar.
The LVN also explains the Glucometer measured the blood sugar but was not accepting the patient name or loading into CareConnect and the MHT may have entered the time incorrectly. She says she called the doctor to report the patient condition ( crying, vomiting, blood sugar), but the doctor refuted the reading, stating the blood sugar was 187.
The LVN explained that there were problems with the Glucometer uploading information so she repeated the reading to the doctor. She states the physician told her to administer two units if the patient continued to cry. A patient was then found to be sleeping, so the LVN did not administer insulin until she woke up again.
The LVN states when the patient woke up, she prepared the insulin and called the supervisor to co-sign on the insulin. She states her supervisor read the current and correct blood sugar, questioned the dose, and called the doctor again. She further adds that the doctor then ordered 25units of insulin’. The LVN adds that the second reading of 31 7 was obtained to get the most recent reading at the time of transfer to ICU. She states that the physician denied knowing the correct blood sugar level.
The Texas Board of Nursing found that her conduct was likely to injure the patient from clinical care decisions based upon incomplete assessment information and resulted in an incomplete medical record. Furthermore, the LVN’s conduct was likely to injure the patient from clinical care decisions based upon incomplete assessment information and resulted in an incomplete medical record. In addition, her conduct also deprived the physician of the opportunity to institute timely medical interventions and was likely to injure the patient from medical complications of untreated hyperglycemia including diabetic ketoacidosis (DK.A) or even death.
She was given the chance to defend her license but she failed due to lack of proper nurse defense from a nurse attorney. Unfortunately, her LVN license was disciplined.
Avoid the same thing from happening to you. Find the right nurse attorney in Texas to help you with your needs. Contact nurse attorney Yong J. An directly by calling or texting him at (832) 428-5679 for a discreet consultation.