Far from the Nashville courtroom where nurse RaDonda Vaught was convicted of homicide for giving a patient the wrong drug, medical experts and talking heads have mostly asked the right questions. Will the case have a chilling effect on the nursing profession? Did software system issues at Vaught's hospital contribute to the tragedy? Aren't chronically low staffing levels priming the pump for future mistakes?
All are important, all worthy of examination. But the rush to answer these questions obscures a development, nurses say, that may radically alter the delivery of medical care in our country. It is a sea change hiding in plain sight.
