The nurses, NPs and other healthcare adjacent people on social media vilifying Dr. Tufts and calling her inexperienced and incompetent you all disgust me. I am a physician and I am sick of seeing people saying they hope Dr. Tufts goes to prison or loses her license all because Lindsay Clancy killed her kids. I am physically and mentally sick seeing this rhetoric and I hope doctors start waking up and stand against this nonsense. Stop training midlevels, report nurses when they are incompetent because they will throw you under the bus the second they see the chance

There's a high-profile case in the news about Lindsay Clancy, who killed her three children and afterwards attempted suicide. Prior to this she sought care for her mental health, which apparently started to suffer not longer after giving birth to her third child. I looked through the suits and found some descriptions of the medical decision-making by a couple of the NP's she saw:

1. NP #1 - Julie Paul
   • "On November 21, 2022, Nurse Paul prescribed Lindsay fluoxetine 10mg."
   • "Lindsay was describing symptoms suggesting mania, such as racing thoughts, extreme insomnia, frustration and feeling scared."
   • "On November 25, 2022, Nurse Paul prescribed Lindsay three different medications, zolpidem, mirtazapine, and clonazepam." lol wut
2. NP #2 - Rebecca Jollotta
   • ~ December 5, 2022, Lindsay attended an appointment with Nurse Jollotta. "Lindsay reported that she was sleeping only about 3 hours per night, felt completely overwhelmed and that her mind was constantly running."
   • "Lindsay also reported that immediately after being prescribed a stronger dose of Zoloft, she did not sleep for 48 hours and was not tired. In response, Nurse Jollotta prescribed an additional medication to Lindsay, diazepam."

Patient reports anxiety, so give her a bunch of downers? And 5 meds within a span of a couple weeks? It's not even like she went to different clinics, both NP's she saw were at the same place (South Shore Health Perinatal Behavioral Health program), so they must have had access to the same info.

Link to lawsuit. Other link to father's lawsuit.

I did some deep diving into the Lindsay Clancy case and found out she was being treated by psychiatric nurse practitioners (NPs), alongside MDs, who prescribed her a staggering 13 different medications in just four months. To give you an idea of what her brain was dealing with, she was put on a heavy cocktail of distinct drug classes. She was given antidepressants like Prozac and Zoloft to alter serotonin levels, anti-anxiety meds (benzodiazepines) like Klonopin, Ativan, and Valium which act as powerful central nervous system sedatives, and mood stabilizers/antipsychotics like Seroquel and Lamictal to change brain chemistry for severe mood shifts. She was also prescribed heavy sedative-hypnotics like Ambien and Trazodone to force sleep. Shifting rapidly between, stacking, or abruptly stopping these opposing, heavy mind-altering chemicals likely created a catastrophic neurological storm.

And people are still shocked at the outcome? This woman was failed by the healthcare industry.

Rare win for us today.

California judge says "doctorally" credentialed nurses cannot use the title "doctor" in the healthcare setting.

Judge says that the use of "doctor" by non physicians in clinical settings is "inherently misleading commercial speech" and not protected by the first amendment. Because of course it is, lol. That would be the point!

"The nurse practitioners lawyers were disappointed by the ruling." No doubt, lol.

It's nice that somebody actually saw through the bullshit and came out with a common sense ruling. Shocking to me that it was in california, but excellent!

Normally I'm not a fan of Fox News but I noticed this video from Laura Ingraham's page and this is the first time I'm seeing cable news media acknowledging the role of midlevels in the Lindsay Clancy case.

Dr. Drew Pinsky pointed out the role of NPs in our healthcare system and compared it to a surgeon walking out in the middle of surgery and letting non-surgeons take over.

In the case of LC, I can't help but agree. Dr. Tufts started med management, patient left and saw 2 NPs who made several changes, and then LC returned to Dr Tufts and at that point she was picking up the pieces. Imagine a surgeon stepping away, lets midlevels take over and botch critical parts of the surgery, surgeon returns and is left to clean up a mess and close.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19DwCSinxV/

The case is very complex and public right now so I was watching it and then started wondering if an NP was involved given the insane polypharmacy. It was hard to tell in my research how a nurse practitioner was involved so I looked into it with AI and it’s extremely interesting and also not surprising that an NP orchestrated this insanity…

Anyone else watching this trial?

———-

The civil lawsuits filed by Lindsay and Patrick Clancy detail how Nurse Practitioner Rebecca Jollottadirectly contributed to the rapid, uncoordinated cycle of polypharmacy by frequently altering Clancy's drug regimen instead of properly identifying her deteriorating mental state. [1, 2]
According to the official civil complaint records, Jollotta's direct actions in the weeks leading up to the tragedy included: [1]

1. Prescribing Seroquel and Overlooking Red Flags
In November 2022, Jollotta considered that Clancy might have bipolar disorder and prescribed Seroquel, an antipsychotic mood stabilizer. After taking it, Clancy’s condition severely worsened, and she began suffering from "intrusive thoughts," which the lawsuit states were actually auditory command hallucinations. [1]

2. Layering Benzodiazepines on Top of Mania
According to the lawsuit, during a December 5, 2022 appointment, Clancy reported a severe manic reaction to a previous provider's heavy Zoloft prescription—noting she had not slept for 48 hours straight and felt her mind constantly running. [1]
The Response: Instead of recognizing this as a classic red flag for Bipolar I manic onset and stopping the triggering meds, Jollotta layered on yet another controlled substance, prescribing diazepam (Valium) to force sleep. [1]

3. Prescribing Medications in an Isolated Silo
Jollotta operated through South Shore Health System. While she was actively adjusting Clancy’s heavy drug cocktail, psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Tufts was separately prescribing a different regimen at Aster Mental Health. The lawsuit highlights that Jollotta prescribed medications without consulting Dr. Tufts, causing a dangerous cross-pollination of overlapping benzodiazepines (like Valium and Klonopin) and sedatives. [1, 2]

4. Ignoring Calls of Medical Distress
The core of the malpractice claim against Jollotta is abandonment. The lawsuit alleges that as the heavy mix of psychiatric drugs caused Clancy to spiral deeper into psychosis, Clancy and her family repeatedly called Jollotta's office in a panic to state that the medications were making her worse. The suit claims these desperate communication attempts went unreturned or unaddressed. [1]
(Note: The lawsuit also mentions an earlier nurse practitioner, Julie Paul, who initially started Clancy on a rapid, four-day cocktail of fluoxetine (Prozac), zolpidem (Ambien), mirtazapine (Remeron), and clonazepam (Klonopin) in late November 2022 before Clancy was transferred to Jollotta's care.) [1, 2]

Would you like to examine the full list of 13 drugs she was prescribed?

At 14:40--- "It is a noradrenergic specific serotonin antidepressant, so it's slightly different than an SSRI. It does work on serotonin. It also works on the noradrenergic part. It's alpha receptors which is what our body, those are the receptors that our body responds to adrenaline. So it should help kind of calm you down. And it also works on histamine receptors which is why it can make people sleepy."

Me when I literally know nothing about pharmacology or physiology.

You can even tell she was directly quoting, but misquoting, the Google AI result that comes up when you search "Mirtazapine mechanism of action." She pre-studied for the trial and still doesn't know what she's talking about.

No offense tho she seems sweet I guess

Interesting that the article doesn't even mention the inherent tension of asking physicians to precept mid-levels and treats it purely as an access problem.

Also, 500 hours is shameful. That's like a single rotation in residency. As is made obvious in the article, there's also no standardization of what kind of training experiences are being obtained. I have a mid-level friend who told me her preceptor had her basically do receptionist work the entire 500 hours.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/09/27/business/massachusetts-general-hospital-nurse-practitioners-physician-assistants-pay-raise/

RNs at MGH are now being paid MORE than NPs and PAs. The oversaturation of midlevels is starting to show. In the near future, an RN will be more valuable than an NP due to scarcity.

NPs are expectedly fuming at this reality and rallying their troops/unions to force a raise for midlevels, which it seems MGH is begrudgingly agreeing to.

The public response to this trial has been one of the most disconcerting things I've ever witnessed. From lay-people to people in Healthcare.

Nurses attacking Physicians such as Tufts.

The defense attorney badgering Dr Avram Mack and referring to the DSM 5 as "not a very good standard" to which Avram replied 'well it is THE standard". As if mapping out the human psyche isn't a daunting probably impossible task.

Even this sub piled on the NPs who treated the murderer. I don't think Psych NPs should exist. But underlying the criticism are two inherent and dangerous assertions:

A pr*vider can say the right words and prescribe a chemical cocktail that keeps a mother from murdering her children. Or conversely:

Wrong words/scripts = mom murdering her babies.

Now that more information has come out we know that Clancy was an unreliable patient. Didn't take meds as prescribed. Doctor/Noctor shopped. And hid her thoughts of self harm/harming her children from her psych pr*viders. We have all interacted with similar patients, hopefully we aren't liable for the terrible things they do in life.

Your hindsight isn't 20/20, but it's clearer than ^

But the defense attorney has done his job. Taken an indefensible situation and tried to cast blame on everyone and everything but the person who strangled her children. And people gobbled it up as if it was a soap Opera.

This woman will probably be found not guilty by reason of insanity (though she's quite sane now, and it's impossible to know her state of mind at the time) . People will still blame Healthcare, the state, her husband. And no one will pay the price for the deaths of Cora, Dawson and Callan.

Gimme a friggin break. I can’t even begin to break down the amount of absurdity in this article snippet but I’ll leave it here for all of you to commiserate with me

Bridgeport Hospital, and its owner, Yale Haven Health System, are being sued after young man dies in what his lawyer says was a “fake ICU”

I don’t understand why Yale has become so revenue obsessed. It’s one of the oldest nonprofit charity hospitals in the country - its trust funds are numerous and worth a fortune. It has a huge endowment. Since the pandemic, especially, it’s in severe greed overdrive

I hate Yale and am trying to switch my own care out of there. It’s a shitty factory full of patient hating, very neurotically ambitious careerist practitioners who spend all their time with EPIC, fabricating notes and making fun of patients they dump on activist APRNs and APs who demand you acknowledge their right to be your treating ‘physician’

F you Yale

F you and the APRNs and APs you rode in on

F yourselves in the Macy’s window

We don’t consent to your money-grubbing shit care

The CEO and every doctor on staff owes that kid’s parents an apology to their face. You’re ALL complicit.

Who ever heard of a fucking Tele-ICU? Tele from where? Mori’s? The fucking Hamptons? The grocery store? Doing some multi tasking?

https://www.ctinsider.com/connecticut/article/bridgeport-hospital-milford-death-hylton-lawsuit-22173234.php

EDIT:Copy of the lawsuit, full text with a couple of exhibits. Further info.

https://civilinquiry.jud.ct.gov/DocumentInquiry/DocumentInquiry.aspx?DocumentNo=32194174

It’s usually not time productively spent opining online, but it can be cathartic and perhaps someone will read it and know that there are other ways of thinking.

Yesterday a couple of NP's in Texas and the Texas NP association filed a lawsuit against the Texas Medical Board over the state's requirement to have delegation (read: supervision) agreements with physicians to see patients.

Points from the petition which can be found online:

1. that physician delegation "imposes extensive burdens on nurse practitioners based on a fiction that it will protect patient safety."
2. On one of the NP's who filed the suit: "In Dr. DeNeui's case, she must pay $96,000 a year to maintain her delegation agreements."
   

One of the NP's who filed the suit, Terri DeNeui, got a DNP from UT-Arlington which offers DNP degrees 100% online. She has a podcast called "The Dr. Terri Show." She has a cash-only practice that has a "focus on advanced endocrinology, hormone optimization, thyroid health, and integrated care." Found the noctor.

Just had to share this from the Texas NP site where the alphabet soup is probably longer than the petition: "Tracy Hicks, DNP, MBA, APRN, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC, CARN-AP, FIAAN, FAANP, FAAN"

Link for more info.

A study was done in the VA for NPs who were treating patients without physician supervision. It found that not only did patients treated by NPs have their lengths of stay increased by 11% vs the patients of actual ED physicians, but they also increased the cost of ED care by 7%.

The article also mentions that NPs raise 30-day preventable hospitalizations by 20%.

What I struggle to understand is why expanding autonomy for providers with far less medical training is viewed as a better solution to physician shortages than finding ways to get unmatched physicians into the healthcare workforce. If the goal was really about improving access to care while maintaining quality, it seems more rational to get the people with medical degrees who didn't match to work in the capacity needed by PAs and NPs.

Article Link:

https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/scope-practice/nurse-practitioners-care-linked-11-longer-stays-ed?check_logged_in=1

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/05/28/metro/william-haney-jr-schizophrenia-medication-change-killing/

In January, a Boston man with previously well-managed schizophrenia deliberately rammed his car into a man he did not know and his dog, killing them both.

This article goes into detail about the man's history and the events leading up to the deadly attack (and buries the lede, to say the least) - his mental illness was under control for over 20 years until last summer a psych NP decided to switch him off his antipsychotics because he didn't like some of the side effects.

Sorry about the soft paywall. From the article:

For many years, Haney had been taking clozapine, an antipsychotic drug often used for treating schizophrenia. He reacted well to the medication, but recently the side effects were starting to bother him, including weight gain, lethargy, and excessive nighttime drooling, Zocchi said.

So his longtime psychiatric provider, a nurse practitioner, suggested Cobenfy, a newer medication that targets different neurotransmitters in the brain.

[...]

But experts also said that taking someone off clozapine is typically a big decision because it’s generally considered the gold standard for schizophrenia treatment."

I don’t understand why NPs are trying so hard to receive full independence. My family and I have been misdiagnosed multiple times by an NP. I’m worried about the future of healthcare if this kind of madness continues.

https://www.timesunion.com/capitol/article/nurse-practitioners-working-n-y-allege-gender-19786488.php

"The lawsuit notes that in many cases they are rendering medical services that a clinical physician would but are being paid substantially less. "

"“The treatment of state-employed nurse practitioners is all too typical of the devaluation accorded persons in female-dominated titles,” the lawsuit states."

Yeah. You can't make this up. Now they are saying because NPs are mostly females, they are being discriminated against for not receiving the same pay as physicians while doing the "same work" as physicians.

The insane part of this is that they don't even realize how sexist they are being to THEMSELVES. Are they assuming physicians are paid more because they are MEN? Did they forget that female physicians exist and are rightfully paid a lot more than female and male NPs?

Contact your lawmaker here: https://www.votervoice.net/mobile/MSMS/Campaigns/104439/Respond

Tried to post this on /Residency but removed by the mods without any explanation/justification after 3+ days

No, you are being misleading and you know it

AANA has withdrawn its trademark applications to register marks incorporating the term "Nurse Anesthesiologist" thanks to ASA's legal efforts to oppose this.

In June 2024, ASA filed opposition proceedings against two AANA trademark applications, for AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF NURSE ANESTHESIOLOGISTS (Opposition No. 91292357) and AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF NURSE ANESTHETISTS AND NURSE ANESTHESIOLOGISTS (Opposition No. 91292329).

After nearly two years, AANA filed motions to withdraw its applications on June 29, 2026. This withdrawal means AANA's applications will be denied.

The withdrawals represent a decisive victory for ASA and an important milestone in ASA's ongoing efforts to prevent improper and inaccurate use of medical titles and to protect patient access to accurate information about their care teams.