Stand Together

I have resisted publicly commenting on the Amanda Trujillo case for a few days.

My rationale? I didn’t know the whole story.

I still don’t know the whole story. But I realized that my rationale is BS. A cop-out.

I don’t need to know the whole story to know that a colleague, another professional, stood up for a patient and paid dearly for it. Whatever the context, whatever additional details Banner Health may be holding onto, the fact remains that a fellow nurse acted within her own scope of practice and was fired for it.

The fact remains that a patient didn’t have complete information before he gave consent to surgery. Which means he didn’t give informed consent. When Amanda realized this and educated her patient, advocated for her patient – hell, practiced as a nurse – she lost her livelihood.

The physician failed the patient. The hospital failed the patient. Amanda didn’t fail the patient. And yet she’s the one fighting for her license with the Arizona State Board of Nursing. She’s the one facing a psychiatric evaluation for fighting back. I kid you not.

The nursing Code of Ethics Provision 2 says this:

The nurse’s primary commitment is to the patient.

Apparently fulfilling our professional ethical obligations can jeopardize our jobs. And our licenses.

How ironic, that practicing as a nurse can end our nursing careers.

For background on Amanda Trujillo’s story, see here and here or listen here. For details about how to support Amanda, see the Nerdy Nurse’s post here. And for an incredible post about how Amanda’s struggle is our struggle, see Joyce Harrell’s blog post.