A nurse is punished for a mistake, while a deliberate doctor goes free RaDonda Vaught is a former nurse who was criminally prosecuted this spring after accidentally ordering the wrong drug for a patient, who later died. She’ll serve three years of supervised probation, while a former physician named William Husel was acquitted after purposefully ordering deadly doses of fentanyl for 14 patients who then died under his care.
This week on the “First Opinion Podcast,” nurses and educators Michelle Collins and Cherie Burke discuss the double standard that these differing punishments exemplify, and how hospital systems need to create more supportive, respectful atmospheres to keep clinicians and patients safe. Listen Now “If you hold up one slice of Swiss cheese, you can see through it. If you hold up a whole half-pound of Swiss cheese, you can rarely see through all the holes,” Burke said. “The holes all aligned here — Vaught went through the holes and an error occurred. So we need to build better systems to ensure our safety.” Like what you hear? Subscribe to The First Opinion Podcast on your favorite platform. New episodes are released every Wednesday morning. | 
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