As an agency nurse, you have spent your life training in healthcare and providing critical medical to your patients. Your first professional priority is your patients and their health, despite the challenges inherent to the nursing profession.
Agency nurses, including travel nurses, play a vital role in addressing the unprecedented nursing shortage in New Hampshire and across the country. You ensure that patients receive the care they need in places and facilities that would otherwise be without an adequate number of nurses.
A healthcare system in which medically fragile patients are cared for in understaffed facilities often results in unfortunate patient outcomes, staff with low morale, and a schism between management and the nursing staff. For agency nurses, who are expected to deliver impeccable care in high-stress situations with limited orientation, this is even more true.
As an agency nurse, you may be working in a situation in which no one has your back. No one is responsible for ensuring you have what you need to do your job and to do it well. This isolation may become more acute if you find yourself defending your nursing license from disciplinary action.
If you are an agency nurse confronting a license disciplinary investigation or hearing in New Hampshire, you do not have to face it alone. Instead, the experienced Professional License Defense Team at the Lento Law Firm can partner with you to defend your license and your livelihood. Regardless of where in the disciplinary process you find yourself, experienced attorneys at the Lento Law Firm can fight on your behalf. Call us today at 888-535-3686 or contact us online.
Nurse Licensure in New Hampshire
The New Hampshire Office of Professional Licensure and Certification manages the state's professional licensure programs, including nursing, in New Hampshire. TheNew Hampshire Board of Nursing (the Board) is responsible for protecting the health and welfare of the citizens of New Hampshire from unauthorized, unqualified, and improper nursing care. When an agency nurse is working in New Hampshire, regardless of whether they hold a New Hampshire or a multistate license, the Board has the authority to review their compliance with the state's nursing-related laws and regulations.
The Board is willing to take significant disciplinary actions against nurses who are believed to have violated nursing-related laws and regulations in New Hampshire. From reprimands to license revocations, the Board actively pursues discipline against nurses.
The Lento Law Firm can provide the legal guidance you need to navigate New Hampshire's professional license disciplinary procedures. Our attorneys can strategize with you, review and collect evidence, identify and meet with witnesses, as well as oversee the actions of the Board to ensure your due process rights are protected.
Agency Nursing in Multiple States, Including New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a member of theEnhanced Nursing License Compact (eNLC). As a result, an agency nurse in New Hampshire may hold a New Hampshire nursing license. Alternatively, many agency nurses who travel to New Hampshire work based on a multi-state nursing license through the eNLC.
The eNLC is a multistate licensing program created to improve and standardize nurse licensing. It also minimizes licensing complications and confusion for agency nurses who work in multiple states. By March 2024, there were 41 U.S. states and territories, including New Hampshire, participating in the eNLC. In other states, legislatures are considering legislation that would authorize participation in the eNLC.
If you are an agency nurse working in New Hampshire, on a state license, or under the eNLC, you are subject to the nursing laws and regulations of New Hampshire. The Board can pursue disciplinary proceedings against you. Importantly, the New Hampshire Board must share the results of its disciplinary procedures with the Nursys database. The Nursys database is a national system that allows for the online verification of nursing licenses.
Because of the interconnectedness between New Hampshire, eNLC, Nursys, and the rest of the country, a sanction in New Hampshire could have profound and destructive ripple effects. Professional sanctions in New Hampshire could lead to the loss of your multistate privileges. If your multistate privileges are revoked in one state, they will likely be revoked in all participating eNLC member states. In turn, your own state's board of nursing, which issued your original nursing license, may launch its own investigation into whether problematic conduct violated its regulations. The adverse effects of a disciplinary proceeding may extend to every corner of your professional world.
The best way to minimize the impact of a disciplinary matter is to mount a comprehensive defense with the Lento Law Firm. If you are an agency nurse working in New Hampshire and are facing disciplinary charges or a hearing, the Lento Law Firm's Team of experienced attorneys can help. With the Lento Law Firm on your side, you have a partner fighting alongside you to protect your ability to work in your chosen profession.
New Hampshire's Conduct Standards for Nurses
In New Hampshire, as in other states, agency nurses are required to follow the rules of conduct for their profession. Any nurse, including an agency nurse, who is accused of violating the state's nursing standards may face discipline. The results of a disciplinary hearing can vary widely based on the alleged misconduct but may include restrictions or conditions on your license, suspension of your license for a specific period, or a complete license revocation. Once a nursing license is revoked, it can be extremely difficult for it to be reinstated.
In New Hampshire, the Board may discipline a license holder for a broad range of offenses, including:
- Unprofessional conduct, such as using inappropriate language, behaving unpleasantly with colleagues or patients, failing to prioritize patient safety, working under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and offending general standards of moral, ethical, and professional conduct.
- Misuse of a medical provider's property, such as stealing medical items from the workplace, using work-related items, including medications, for personal use, and borrowing medical items without authorization.
- Deception in the education or credentialing processes, including obtaining or renewing your degree or license through fraudulent means such as lying about criminal history, misrepresenting where you studied or your grades and test scores, and misrepresenting your nursing experience.
- Criminal behavior, including an arrest, charge, or conviction for a criminal offense, particularly one in which one's judgment is questioned, such as driving under the influence, could lead to a professional proceeding.
- Lack of technical skills or unfitness to practice, including failing to have the demeanor necessary to interact with patients and failing to have the knowledge or physical ability to perform nursing duties.
The list of possible violations is long, complex, and vague. One patient may find a nurse's casual manner a comforting effort to foster closeness. Another may find the same behavior an inappropriately informal overreach for a nurse and their patient. While some conduct may be so extreme as to be generally agreed upon as violating ethical standards, other behaviors may fall into decidedly gray areas.
In some cases, the behavior that the Board considers misconduct may also be illegal. New Hampshire's Nurse Practice Act prohibits:
- Selling, fraudulently obtaining, or providing any nursing degree, license, or record.
- Practicing nursing without a valid license.
- Using any designation to erroneously imply your licensure as an RN, LPN, or LNA.
- Representing or implying that a nursing or nursing assistant education program has been approved by the Board when the program has not been approved.
- Disclosing, soliciting, or compiling information about licensing exams, unless authorized to do so.
The complexity of the practice of nursing and the regulation of the profession can be exacerbated for agency nurses. Nurses commonly find themselves responsible for executing doctors' orders, ensuring patients are receiving proper care, evaluating and responding to emergencies, documenting vitals, care plans, and medical histories, and properly using medical equipment and pharmaceuticals to provide required medical care.
Agency nurses perform these same functions, but often without the benefit of personal relationships with supervisors and colleagues or without a long-term employment relationship with the medical facility. Agency nurses are often left to their own devices to figure out the spoken and unspoken rules of the medical facility in which they work.
For any agency nurse performing care without supportive colleagues or an employer, disciplinary sanctions can be confusing and overwhelming.
You do not need to navigate a professional disciplinary investigation, hearing, or appeal alone. No matter where in the process you find yourself, the Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team can help you.
If you learn that you are the subject of a disciplinary investigation or hearing, you want to take immediate steps to mount your best defense. The Lento Law Firm can work with you to respond to any disciplinary matter. The sooner you contact the Lento Law Firm, the sooner our experienced attorneys can begin working in your corner. It is never too late to assemble the team of experienced attorneys you need to protect yourself and your license.
Disciplinary Processes for Nurses in New Hampshire
The New Hampshire Board of Nursing can begin an investigation into an agency nurse based on a complaint or its own volition. If the Board suspects misconduct or otherwise believes an investigation is warranted, a disciplinary process can begin. In the face of a disciplinary proceeding, your agency and your host facility may have different priorities than you. If you face any disciplinary charges, you must create a team to protect your best interests and respond to all allegations on time.
Investigations by the Board
During an investigation, representatives of the Board collect evidence and testimony about the alleged misconduct or other basis for the inquiry. The Board possesses broad investigatory powers, which include subpoenaing your records and interviewing anyone whose testimony may inform the investigation. The sooner you contact the Lento Law Firm's experienced attorneys, the sooner we can help you defend yourself against allegations of improper conduct.
If the Board reviews your case and the related evidence and determines that disciplinary proceedings are necessary, you will receive a copy of the allegations. You and your employer will have an opportunity to provide a written response within 15 days.
Hearings Before the Board
In limited emergent circumstances, the Board may suspend a nurse's license without a hearing. In most cases, the Board must hold a hearing before suspending a license or imposing other punitive sanctions.
The Board may determine that a public adjudicative hearing is necessary. You should be given 15 days' notice of the disciplinary hearing. At the hearing, you can expect evidence to be presented, witness testimony, and oral arguments by the Board's hearing counsel and your attorney. At any disciplinary hearing, you need a team in your corner, fighting for you, your license, and your livelihood. The Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team can represent you and your interests during any hearing before the Board.
Consent Orders
During the disciplinary process, the Board may pursue a consent order with the targeted nurse or their counsel. A consent order is a type of mutually agreed-upon conclusion to the disciplinary proceeding.
A consent order for a nurse's disciplinary hearing generally includes:
- The nurse accepting fault for some or all allegations.
- The negotiation of and agreement to specific sanctions.
- The nurse accepts the sanctions violation.
- The nurse immediately begins to serve the penalties.
Accepting a consent order may allow the targeted nurse to avoid the most severe potential sanctions. For example, a consent order may include a temporary suspension of license but allows the nurse to avoid the risk that the Board would permanently revoke their license. A nurse who does not believe the accusations are valid or thinks the consent order sanctions are still too severe may be reluctant to accept a negotiated agreement. With the Lento Law Firm on your side, we can strategize when and under what conditions a consent order would make sense for you and your goals.
Board Sanctions
At the end of a disciplinary hearing and without a consent order in place, the Board will issue a finding. If the Board makes an adverse finding and sanctions you, the decision can be appealed. A sanctioned nurse has 30 days to appeal for a rehearing.
The Professional License Defense Team at the Lento Law Firm can help you throughout Board disciplinary procedures. We can make sure the Board meets its notice and due process requirements. We can help you understand the charges, investigate mitigating facts, collect evidence, organize witness and expert testimony, manage correspondence with the Board, and prepare you for interviews and any formal disciplinary process. If or when it becomes appropriate, we can negotiate a consent agreement between you and the Board. We can stand with you and be on your side through every step of the process. The sooner you add the Lento Law Firm to your team, the sooner we can help protect you and your nursing license.
It's Never Too Late to Contact the Lento Law Firm
As with most adversarial proceedings, the earlier you assemble a defense team to protect your rights and your license, the better. From the first hint that you might be facing a disciplinary investigation, having a partner in the Lento Law Firm can help you.
If you've tried to navigate a Board investigation or hearing alone and are facing sanctions, there is still time to contact the Lento Law Firm. Even if your license has been suspended or revoked or if you fear criminal charges may be forthcoming, the Lento Law Firm may still be able to help defend your life and livelihood. The experienced professional license defense attorneys at the Lento Law Firm can partner with you to appeal an adverse decision or prepare for additional civil or criminal charges. The best defense is an informed one.
The impact of a Board investigation can be devastating to your life and career. The Lento Law Firm can develop a comprehensive strategy in response to any threat of sanctions, supporting your best defense through every step of the disciplinary or legal processes.
The Impact of Sanctions
The possible impact of nurse disciplinary cases can be as varied as the charges themselves. Any adverse decision can and will likely have far-reaching consequences for you and your loved ones.
The placement of conditions on your license can limit your future employment. A suspension or revocation can cripple your ability to make a living in a field you have studied and worked toward for years, limiting your ability to work and possibly leading to financial hardships.
Additionally, disciplinary sanctions can and will likely extend beyond the borders of New Hampshire. The New Hampshire Nursing Board provides information on its disciplinary actions to the Nursys database. An entry into the Nursys database may be incomplete, with only information about the sanction and including no background, context, or mitigating information. Potential employers, checking your Nursys record, could easily see an undesirable sanction and make hiring decisions without any additional information.
The personal impact of sanctions can be catastrophic. From the financial hardship of losing your income to the health and mental health impact of the investigation and hearing, every aspect of your life may be impacted. Additionally, the stigma of losing your license and being subject to the Board's disciplinary sanction can be long-lasting.
It can be difficult to admit that you need assistance with a disciplinary matter, particularly if the process has been harrowing. But you do not need to be embarrassed about or resigned to the Board's disciplinary process. When you are ready for help, the Lento Law Firm can be there to fight on your side.
As an agency nurse, you provide critical medical care and save lives each day. You apply your education and experience to make difficult decisions in challenging environments. You are fully aware of the importance and significance of the life-and-death decisions that you make. If you are accused of professional misconduct, the life and license you need to protect is your own. When you need to save yourself, your license, and your career, you want the experienced attorneys from the Lento Law Firm on your side.
Protect Yourself and Your License
If the New Hampshire Board of Nursing takes disciplinary action against you, the results can be devastating to your life and career. A license suspension or revocation may cause the loss of your current job, a limitation on future employment opportunities, and the end of your career. Many nurses are unable to return to their chosen profession after serious disciplinary sanctions.
A professional disciplinary process can be long, emotional, and overwhelming. As an agency nurse, you are a trained healthcare professional able to care for patients in need. At the Lento Law Firm, our Professional License Defense Team consists of well-trained and experienced attorneys ready to protect you and your rights throughout the disciplinary process. The Lento Law Firm will do our work and help you get back to yours.
You Don't Have to Fight the New Hampshire Board of Nursing Alone
If you are an agency nurse accused of misconduct, you could easily find yourself in an area of the country you know little about and with limited support systems. It is up to you to protect your license and your livelihood, and the Lento Law Firm can help. We can help you ensure the Board completes a meaningful investigation, collecting and considering all the relevant facts, and upholding your notice and other due process rights.
The Lento Law Firm can partner with you to achieve the best possible outcome. Our national team of experienced professional license defense attorneys will fight in your corner, protecting you, your rights, your license, and your livelihood. Contact the Lento Law Firm at 888-535-3686 or online. With the Lento Law Firm on your side, you do not have to face misconduct charges alone.
