Undercover Epicenter Nurse PDF Free Download

This book starts with a 50 page preface by JB Handley, an anti-vaccine friend of Erin’s (as is her lawyer, Kevin Barry). Handley, a private-equity entrepreneur in private consumer companies, is not an expert on health care or COVID. The preface, according to Erin, is filled with “FACTS” e.g., “People infected with COVID-19 who are asymptomatic (which are most people) do NOT spread COVID-19.” and “Emerging science shows no spread of COVID-19 in the community.” Those statement have no scientific basis, are blatantly false and have been thoroughly debunked by David Gorski, MD, PhD on Science Based Medicine.

Chapter 1 is a compelling memoir about Erin’s unhappy childhood with many photos. While this is relevant to ultimately working in nursing, it’s unclear how this is related to her description of events at Elmhurst.

Chapter 2 is about Erin’s unhappy time in the military, where the government lied. As a veteran of the Vietnam Era, I have to say I found her description of how she was treated as an enlisted person to be very believable. I can’t speak to her experiences in Iraq.

Chapter 3 is all about how Erin became anti-vaccine “I’m not an anti-vaxxer, I’m an ex-vaxxer.” touting her AV activism. In a chapter devoted to anti-vaccine activism, her “everything is about profits” theme that informs her NYC ‘expose’ is presented. She also later doesn’t see how her anti-vaccine activism is relevant. The fact the she spent an entire chapter in the same book on that activism makes it relevant.

Chapter 4 finally brings us to NYC, halfway through the book. Erin went with an agenda, bragging about bringing spyglasses, for $10,000/week. As Erin often says, follow the money. Reading her descriptions makes it clear that Erin does not understand nursing education, medical education, COVID-19, NYC, chain of command, or HIPAA. Examples:

Nursing education: Erin touts her experience as a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA), and explains the typical way to become a nurse is CNA->LPN->ADN->BSN (p152). It’s not. She provides no evidence to support this theory. I have taught at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The majority of the thousands of nursing students I have had have not been CNAs or LPNs. Registered nursing has several levels of entry into practice, including the ADN, BSN, and Masters entry programs. We used to have hospital-based diploma programs. In fact, I’m a graduate of t the Bellevue School of Nursing (1968). The first nursing program in the country based on the Nightingale Plan, Bellevue was a diploma program at a hospital that is part of the NYC Health and Hospital System that Erin denounces. “Most good nurses start out as CNAs,” (p151) “That’s where it all begins for most nurses” (p152) – neither is true – and then counts her CNA experience as nursing, which it’s not, saying she has 18 years of experience (p269) when she has 3 years experience as a Registered Nurse. Erin became a Practical Nurse in 2014 and was not a registered nurse until 2017.

Medical education: “Most interns and residents have never even been at a patient’s bedside before, never set foot into a patient’s room-not to mention, they’ve never done so during a pandemic.” Interns and residents have, indeed, worked with patients. Medical students start clinical rotations in their 3rd or 4th year, though many programs are starting in the first year. Erin never set foot into a patient’s room during a pandemic before arriving at Elmhurst, either. She refers to interns, residents, and actual doctors, clearly not understanding that interns and residents ARE actual doctors.

HIPAA: “HIPAA includes a whistleblower provision that protects people like me who need to use examples of patient care to expose wrongdoing.” (p244). Those protections are limited to an attorney, healthcare oversight agency or public health authority, and healthcare accreditation organization. Not only do these exceptions not apply to media interviews, courts have punished some whistleblowers for perceived carelessness with HIPAA protected PHI.

Chain of command: I have to question why Erin hasn’t complained to an appropriate agency. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals takes complaints seriously, as do Boards of Registered Nursing and Medical Boards. Those would be the appropriate agencies for filing complaints, where HIPAA protections for whistleblowers would apply, and real action to fix what Erin views as problems could be taken.

Erin describes advocating for patients by trying to convince treating physicians to use Vitamin C, and touts zinc with hydroxychloroquine. I’ve watched the interview of her with the recorded conversation with an incredibly patient doctor. In the book, she refers to the doctor in Texas as using them successfully. That doctor is the same conspiracy theorist who believes in alien DNA and women’s diseases are caused by sex with demons in dreams.

On page 145, Erin describes PPE use when she took care of Ebola patients. The US had a total of 11 cases of Ebola in 2014, the year Erin was first licensed as an LPN in Wisconsin, where there were no cases of Ebola and an LPN would not have been in that ICU.. At the same time, she publicly posted a picture of herself working at Elmhurst in inappropriate PPE, including a mask with lips (photo included).

On page 234 Erin claims a lawsuit by three Alabama nurses against the staffing agency paralleled her experience and quotes parts of the suit to support her own claims. I’ve read the lawsuit. The three nurses claimed they were misled and assigned to areas they were not qualified to work in and working in unsafe conditions e.g., lack of PPE. They did complain about working conditions which were, indeed, awful. At no time did they accuse colleagues of negligence, malpractice, or murder. They did not volunteer with the intent to spy on and mock their colleagues.

One might argue Erin has tapes that prove her accusations. These have been the basis of HIPAA violation complaints against her. Like many anti-vaccine activists, much is taken out of context and/or misinterpreted. Nurse and doctor colleagues have had no opportunity to share their views, which may well be different and supported by documented fact. On page 212 Erin has a photo of someone at what looks like a nurses’ station with the caption “Doctor sleeps soundly after her decision not to code the thirty-seven year old patient who died.” We don’t know if this is a doctor whose patient just died, nor do we know if this was one of Erin’s patients. We haven’t heard the doctor’s side. This is not someone sleeping soundly. It’s someone hunched over a desk, head barely resting on a flat surface. Possibly sobbing. Even if this doctor decided not to code the patient, and may have had a good reason, why would Erin malign someone after such a trauma when on page 213 she has a photo of a nurse (we assume) apparently sleeping upright on a chair with the caption: “How could nurses stand up and fight for their patients at this level of exhaustion?”

Most of Erin’s premises can be debunked. As she herself notes, none of the people she worked with have had the opportunity to fact check or refute her claims. This is ultimately a book written by a conspiracy theorist paid $10,000/week plus expenses who intended to show the world how incompetent her fellow professionals were. She accused them, the hospital, and the governor of murder in order to increase her fame. While I was biased going in, I tried to read it with an open mind. Nonetheless, I was appalled at the lack of knowledge, ethics, and professionalism. In addition, Erin clearly didn’t have an editor, which was badly needed. This is a fail on professionalism, ethics, and credibility.”