RaDonda Vaught is back in the spotlight, not as a defendant but as a speaker on patient safety, according to an NPR report partnered with WPLN and KFF Health News. The former Tennessee nurse, who was convicted in 2022 in a case that centered on a medication error at Vanderbilt Medical Center, is now discussing how system failures and hospital culture can compound mistakes, the report said.
The NPR report said Vaught was convicted of negligent homicide in 2022 after an error that killed a hospitalized patient, Charlene Murphey. It said the court case followed a medication mix-up in which a sedative ordered for a patient before an imaging procedure became the lead-up to a different drug being administered, and that vecuronium was given as a result of a chain of mistakes described during the trial.
Vaught served three years’ probation, NPR reported, and after the conviction she lost her nursing license. The report also said she spent much of her probation on a farm where she raises sheep and chickens before receiving her first speaking request within a year, a development described by the journalist as a step toward turning her experience into a cautionary message for other health workers.
In one segment of the report, Vaught is shown bottle-feeding an underweight lamb as she comments on how much of her nursing education she said has carried over into farming. The report said that on stage she does not avoid “painful and embarrassing details,” describing the moment a doctor ordered Versed, what the report described as warning labels that were ignored, and other steps that followed—including a dispensing system override and a patient left alone—before frantic and failed attempts to revive Murphey, who the report identified as an elderly woman.
NPR said Murphey’s family members did not comment when NPR reached out about Vaught’s new speaking career. The report also cited concerns from some nurses in online discussions, including nurses on message boards who said Vaught was profiting from tragedy, and it included Vaught’s response that she said the opportunities were not something she was thinking about at the time.
The report said Vaught’s current speaking work is aimed at reducing the likelihood that mistakes go unreported. It included an archived recording in which Vaught told an audience that people who feel afraid to talk about mistakes and come forward when they happen “it doesn’t save people,” saying it instead kills them.
NPR also reported that nursing groups have invited her to speak and that some have described the value of her testimony. Celia Prince, a nurse who the report said traveled from across the country for Vaught’s sentencing, told NPR: “This is someone that could have been me. I think every nurse keeps saying it’s their worst nightmare,” and the report said the invitation was part of learning meant to improve patient safety.
The report said Charlene Verga, who the report described as having invited Vaught to serve as keynote speaker for the Massachusetts Nurses Association, said she has seen Vaught multiple times and “I’ve never seen RaDonda tell the story and not be upset.” NPR said Verga connected the case to changes beyond individual accountability, pointing to system changes and a broader shift in how nurses can discuss errors.
According to NPR, after Vaught’s trial, the largest manufacturers of medication-dispensing cabinets made changes so workers must type in more than just the first few letters to pull up drug lists—an adjustment aimed at addressing a problem described in the case. The report also said Verga pointed to culture shifts and referenced Kentucky’s passage of a law providing nurses immunity for similar incidents.
NPR’s report said Vaught is now part of a speakers’ bureau that lists a minimum speaking fee of $5,000, and it said she had paid speaking engagements with 22 organizations last year representing doctors, pharmacists and nurses. The report said she has delivered critiques about hospital culture that she says is quick to blame, including speaking to the California Hospital Association.