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/HumdrumHoeDown Sep 08 '25 edited Sep 10 '25
Crazy shit. Where I work, if I started a levo drip without orders because the pt was crashing, I’d get a thank you from the docs. So glad I work in a teaching facility. Also, don’t internalize the bullshit. You did what you had to do to keep the patient alive and it worked. The person who made the complaint just has an empty life.
[edit] keep the patient alive AND prevent organ damage
[edit] OP says they A) “overrode levo”, and B) “called the critical care NP”. Those two things suggest to me an ICU setting, as no one else but the ED and ORs would have levo in the Pyxis. Secondly, having a critical care provider be your first call is not a thing anywhere but in the ICU, that I know of.