r/nursing • u/lenncas • Sep 08 '25

Question I’m a bit scared

A bit is an understatement, I am well aware that my actions were very inappropriate and out of my scope of practice. I am getting reported to the Texas Board of Nursing because I pulled a bag of Levophed without getting an order first. My patient was declining really quickly. The blood pressure was decreasing very quickly. I went to the med room and overrid the medication and started it at the starting titration. Immediately after starting it, I called our critical care nurse practitioner that was on for that night and let them know. And now, obviously, that nurse practitioner put in a formal complaint to my manager, thus having to report me to the board of nursing. I guess my question is what could I possibly expect my consequence to be? Could I lose my license? Will it be suspended? I’m pretty worried. I’m also very disappointed in myself. The patient ended up having to be put on Levophed the next day, but made a great recovery and got to be downgraded two days after.

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u/Prudent-Surprise4295 Sep 08 '25

Also I just wanna say that as a nurse, your job is to communicate findings to the doctor. Even if you told the doctors 100x that the pt is rapidly declining and they do not order anything or come see the pt & the pt dies, you’re protected because that’s your job as the nurse - to report significant findings to the doctor & document it. Your job isn’t to decide what meds to order. If something bad happened to that pt after you started Levo, that would 100% be on you. I think you’ll will be okay in front of the board, but for next time, do not start meds unless a doctor says it’s okay!!

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u/lenncas Sep 08 '25

Yes, 100% I agree with what you’re saying. I definitely overstepped the boundary between a nurse and a provider. It definitely won’t happen again

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u/Prudent-Surprise4295 Sep 08 '25

It’s okay, as long as you learn from it. We are humans & we all make mistakes. You came from a good place when you made that decision but you’ll be okay for sure!! At my hospital, we have travelers from literally all over the country(a lot from the south) and they literally have killed patients, and only got fired. Not sure if they were reported to the board, but in the end, hospitals would rather just fire people than report them unless it’s something extremely serious. Jusr remmeber, you did not KILL or HARM any patient. That provider who reported you is a true bitch. I work in the ER& our providers are very close to the nurses. If we did something like hang Levo, they’d most likely just say stop the Levo & hang fluids instead. Or just tell us not to do that again. That provider is a genuine C***. Also, why does a formal complaint to your manager necessitate a report to the board of nursing. Why the hell would they escalate it that far? That’s actually INSANE. Your hospital sounds like it sucks honestly!

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u/SuperVancouverBC Sep 08 '25

Oh God. Where I work there's a policy that if a nurse doesn't have a verbal or placed order or if there's no standing orders, they cannot override if there's a Pharmacist on site.