Nurse News: Black Mom in Labor Ignored in ER, Patient Faces Felony Charges After Assaulting Nurse, Flu Season Updates, School Nurse Protects HIPAA Amid HFM List Demand, and Another Fake Nurse Sentenced

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Welcome back to the Club Nurse podcast. This week we are covering some more nurse news for you. If you are interested in any of these stories and you want to look into them further, you can always go to nurse.org/news to find all of the written articles and more in-detail information about these stories that we talk about on the nurse news segment. But there are a few stories that I want to highlight, and that's kind of how these news episodes work really. I just kind of sort through these stories that I'm seeing on social media. Or on nurse.org and just kind of looking through these news articles and seeing what I think is the most important to highlight for several different reasons. Sometimes it's just for more entertainment. Sometimes I think it's just really educational and information that needs to be spread around, which is why I choose to put them into this segment of the Club Nurse podcast. So let's talk about this week's nurse news. This first story that I'm going to talk about is Really, really these videos were really difficult to watch. A lot of social media creators covered the story and talked about it in their content, and for good reason—to really to spread awareness and to make this story known. I don't know if any of you had the chance to see this. Like I said, it was really difficult to see. But basically, there was a patient who—and importantly, a black mother—who was in the triage booth in the emergency room is what appeared, who was really, really being. Being ignored and her symptoms were being completely just pushed aside. She was obviously in like active labor, and I can tell you from experience as an ER nurse who has done, you know, has triaged several patients, this is not something that you just sit there and ask questions to the patient. If somebody comes in who's pregnant and is in that much agony and who's obviously uncomfortable, you don't waste time. You get them back. You don't even sit there and try to get their vitals. You really, you get them back to where you can put monitors on them get a monitor on the baby, and with really the goal to get them the heck out of the ER into labor and delivery. Nobody, no ER that I— no ER nurse that I know, or an ER doctor, ER provider that I know, want to see a baby delivered in the emergency department. So like I said, this video was, was really difficult to watch, and the patient was obviously being ignored by the triage nurse. And I don't know if this is true there. I did see the— I'm not sure if any of you saw the post going around that had the triage nurse with the red terminated word over the picture. I don't know how accurate that is. I don't know if she was actually terminated, but it does say that this nurse at Dallas Regional Medical Center was fired. And I just want to say, I don't like to highlight a lot of these stories that talk poorly on nurses. I think it's really important to try to actually really avoid that, but this one really needed to be brought to the light because this is, this is important. And I think that Uh, you know, medical racism and these things are real, and I think people need to understand that. And this is not to highlight, you know, obviously nursing in a bad way, but when these things happen, it needs to be brought to the attention of everybody because this is not okay. And I don't know, I don't know all the, all the details, all the statistics, but, um, I do know that, you know, when, when things like this happen, obviously when there's any kind of racism or prejudice involved in care, obviously the outcome's not going to be great. And the video was being recorded allegedly by the mother of the patient who, you know, who was just being straight up with the nurse and, you know, was asking her, and I quote, y'all treat all your patients like this or just the Black ones? And it's, you know, again, this is a real, a real issue. And if you want to see the video, um, just go on TikTok, search for it. It's everywhere, really. Okay, moving on to the next story of this week. The headline is Patient Rips out nurse's hair and now faces felony charges. Well, that's great. I'm glad that something is happening. As, as nurses, we all know, we've all been in, in the position to be assaulted or whatever it may be, verbally or physically. And you know what, this one was actually terrible. Um, sounds like this 18-year-old is facing Class D felony charges after allegedly yanking hair from a nurse's scalp during a confrontation. Yeah, that was hair. She ripped out her hair. So she is being charged, and that's great. I don't know, I've— again, I've been— I think I've told the story. I've been in the position before in, in the hospital setting of being assaulted by a patient and having, you know, the question of if I wanted to press charges. And honestly, my answer was no. Uh, I just felt like it was more work than anything. I think that if it was there— I've always said there's a threshold that if it was crossed, I think I would press charges. You know, if I was act— if I was physically harmed, i.e., if somebody ripped out my physical hair Or if I had to seek medical care, or if just anything came from it, I would probably press charges just to have it on record. But you know, I've been spit on and had asked you know if I wanted to press charges for things like that. And again, I just feel like that's more more paperwork and more things for for us to do as nurses that's not really gonna have anything come of it. So I think that's really to the discretion of the nurse. If you feel unsafe, or if you feel like that you you need to press charges and get it on record, then By all means, I think you have, you have that right to do that. So if convicted, this person could face up to 6 years in prison and fines reaching up to $10,000. As the legal case against Fox proceeds through the Arkansas court system, it serves as a reminder that stronger legal protections are just one component of a comprehensive approach to addressing violence against healthcare workers. That is true. Okay, let's talk about the what nurses should know about the flu season this year, 2025 to 2026. Uh, I think it's always, it's always one of those controversial things I feel like in, in healthcare and, and nursing of, you know, mandated vaccines and people not wanting to get them. And I think this is even more prevalent during the COVID pandemic because people were really not wanting to get, you know, there was like, it was just like two sides. Like people either really wanted the vaccine or people really didn't. Um, I think there were a lot of people that were really hesitant, but you know, the flu vaccine, you know, it's been here forever. It's proven To help to lower the severity of the infections or to help reduce the spread of the flu, which in the way I look at it is you know if I if I did not necessarily work in healthcare and wasn't exposed all the time, would I get the flu shot? I don't know. It's hard for me to answer that. Do I think it harms us in any way? No, I really don't. I think that by getting it, you're at the very least you know helping the elderly populations or the immunocompromised people who just need you to have that little extra layer of protection to also protect them. There are some differences in the flu vaccine this year. So let's talk about it. And I don't know if this is really that interesting to nurses, but they did switch from the quadrivalent to the trivalent, which is a major difference. This change occurred actually last flu season due to historical research of the flu infections that, you know, projects the data for the upcoming season. And so to kind of give a little bit of context on this, The U.S. transitioned to the quadrivalent flu vaccine during the 2013-2014 flu season to incorporate a second flu B virus because at the time both flu B viruses were seen and the research showed that there was little cross-protection between the 2 lineages. So the World Health Organization and the FDA's Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee— wow, that's a mouthful— found that influenza B And another lineage had not been seen in patients after March 2020. And that's what the— that's where the recommendation came to remove the lineage from all future flu vaccines. So again, it's trivalent now, not quadrivalent. And also, I don't know what this is. This is the first time I had heard about this, but flu mist self-administration. So it's another change this year is that there's at-home administration of flu mist nasal spray. The Flu Mist Home Program allows all eligible individuals to self-administer or administer to another individual. the vaccine. The plan was proposed last flu season but did not take effect until this year. That's interesting. I've never heard of this before, um, so I'm interested to kind of hear more about this flu mist program. But yeah, get your flu shot. I'm sure if most of you who are working bedside have already gotten it because it's a requirement unless you're able to get a health or religious exemption. Oh, this next story, this one's kind of crazy. The school nurse was forced by a superintendent to compile a list of students with hand, foot, and mouth disease. So really, you know, kudos to this nurse Amber Wood who school nurse in Illinois because she really, you know, was advocating for these kiddos, um, and she really was following her, you know, her knowledge as far as like HIPAA and what the laws were in her state. Because the superintendent Timothy Farquhar was charged with official misconduct for accessing and sharing information. Uh, again, if you go to nurse.org/news and find this article, you'll see the email chain that was sent out. They share this record of the, the email between, um, the staff and this nurse and the superintendent. And yeah, He basically forced her to compile a list of these students who were infected and they were sharing this information, who was vaccinated, and really without parental consent. And so basically, I don't know, again, all the details into this, but they were violating several laws. And she, the nurse Amber Wood, was not having it. She initially protested creating the spreadsheet and sharing the information because again, HIPAA laws. And then she also worried about breaking the Illinois School Student Records Act. Act, and that act allows schools to share the student healthcare records with staff who have legitimate educational interests without parental consent. So she was worried about breaking both of those for good reason. And basically what ended up happening is Farquhar was arrested, the superintendent. The Mercer County School District Board of Education released the following statement: Under the Illinois School Student Records Act, student health records are explicitly defined as part of the student's school record. Their use by teachers, school nurses, and support staff is not only common but necessary to meet the educational and developmental needs of our students. Moreover, the management of these records, including secure digital access, is administered by the district's IT department consistent with best practice and statutory obligations. So there was 2 IT workers plus the superintendent who were charged with Class A misdemeanor of unauthorized access to medical records, Class A misdemeanor of computer tampering, and a Class 3 felony of Official misconduct. All have pleaded not guilty and are facing up to five years in prison if convicted. So wow! Again, be careful out there. And this is just another example of abuse of power and really bullying this nurse. And she was not having it. She stood her ground, and good for her. Oh my god! Can we talk about this? Why are there so many people who are falsifying their nursing credentials? This is crazy. Another fake nurse was sentenced, and why credential fraud is rising in healthcare. So, uh, Thomasina Ampanash posed as a nurse at more than 40 Maryland facilities using stolen identities and falsified credentials. She received a 38-month federal prison sentence and must repay over $145,000 that she earned through this fraud. Her case joins a growing list of high-profile nurse impersonation incidents, underscoring the need for stronger credential verification. So Thomasina Ampanash is a Baltimore County woman with a background as a certified medical assistant, but she never had a valid licensed nurse credential. Any— no LPN, no RN license. So how she did this, how she impersonated a nurse, was from September 2019 through August 2023, Ampanash fraudulently posed as a nurse at no less than 40 healthcare and skilled nursing facilities throughout Maryland, as well as a public school. She used stolen identities, faked her experience, and at one point citing a previous LPN supervisor role as well as a degree from Florida State University. No surprise, using more Florida fake degrees. And even incorporated a victim's name into her falsified documents. She allegedly forged a physician's signature on a controlled substance prescription for tramadol, faxed the fraudulent order to the pharmacy, and that was how she was discovered and terminated after this deception. Her actions included failing to administer prescribed medication to patients and falsifying supporting documentation, which put patients safety and trust at significant risk. So she was ordered to pay $145,000 in restitution, the amount she fraudulently earned while impersonating a nurse, which— that's all she earned for in 4 years as a nurse. I don't know what she was doing. Wow, it's a lot. So yeah, she joins the list of a lot of other people who are impersonating nurses. And the, the big question is, why is credentialed fraud on the rise? Recent data shows that healthcare fraud prosecutions and schemes are increasing in both scale and sophistication. For example, a federal report found that healthcare fraud offenses rose nearly 20% between 2020 and 2024. And the several factors that are contributing to this are the increase in complexity of healthcare delivery, more providers, more facilities, and more moving parts, which creates more opportunity for false credentials and falsified identities to slip through. And also just the greater use of staffing agencies, travel nurses, short-term hires just means quicker turnover and credentialing. Cycles, which sometimes leads to just a weaker verification process. Yeah, wow, that's crazy. Another person impersonating, uh, nurses using fake credentials. And really, it's just dangerous. I don't know why people do this. I, I understand, I guess, maybe the why behind it, because they'd want a job and money, but I just feel like there's so many other ways to do that versus impersonating a nurse, um, and how dangerous it is to put yourself in the shoes of a nurse when you're Not properly trained. But all right, those are the stories I wanted to cover this week on the Nurse News segment of the Club Nurse Podcast. So thank you so much for being here. Thank you for listening. Again, if you want to learn more about these stories, be sure to go to nurse.org/news and you will find all of the up-to-date nursing stories, breaking news, and all the things. And be sure to follow the Club Nurse Podcast on Instagram. All right, we will catch you guys next time. Thank you so much for listening. Bye.

From the bottom of my heart, I wanted to thank you for being here at Club Nurse. I hope you gained something valuable from today's episode, and if you did, remember to share this episode with someone that you love. Follow me on socials @NurseDaddies or @ColtonLord17, and be sure to follow nurse.org to stay informed with all of the hottest healthcare news. share topics. Until next time, take care of yourself the way you take care of everyone else. Love ya. Bye.