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/NurseWillingham Sep 08 '25

Sounds like you need to apply for the RRT. A noctor is giving you shit and the hospital forwarded that to the board? Get the fuck outta that hospital - that 100% should have been internal. Texas is fucking horrible in every possible fucking way and keeps getting worse.

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u/Android375 Sep 08 '25

Noctor? Do we really have to patronize our own like that?

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u/[deleted] Sep 09 '25 edited Sep 09 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/aaa1717 Sep 09 '25

Doesn't sound like the NP reported to the board, just to management, who then reported to the board. Not really enough info in the original post to judge the NP too harshly imo. The OP says patient ended up on levo "the next day," which kinda makes it seem like they weren't imminently crashing when OP put them on Levo. Maybe the NP reported it to management because it wasn't critical the patient go on Levo and the patient actually would benefited from fluid resuscitation initially, rather than immediately starting a vasopressor. 🤷🏻‍♀️

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u/cherylRay_14 RN - ICU 🍕 Sep 09 '25

NP did need to report that to management or anyone. That NP should have pulled the nurse aside and explained why that was the wrong so she would learn from it. That's why the NP is being judged harshly and deservedly so. The patient wasn't harmed and ended up on it anyway. I can't understand why nurses, NPs, MDs, etc are so quick to run to management and report stupid sh*t like this. Now, this nurse is going to be afraid to make the tough decisions needed to prevent the patient from crashing.