South Carolina is home to roughly 44,000 registered nurses, and each one is a crucial contributor to the state's healthcare system. The nurses and patients alike depend on the South Carolina Nurse Practice Act as an important factor for quality healthcare. However, violating it can also interrupt, impede, or even end a nurse's career.
That doesn't have to happen to you. With the help of driven and knowledgeable lawyers, you can enjoy a healthy career helping others with their health. Call the Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team at 888.535.3686 or fill out this contact form to find out how they can help you.
A Brief Overview of the South Carolina Nurse Practice Act
Twenty-one nurses gathered in Columbia in 1907 to create a registration bill that would regulate the nursing profession in the state. By 1910, it passed as the South Carolina Nurse Practice Act. As with similar acts, it has evolved over time and now serves as a key piece of legislation governing nurses.
In fact, the South Carolina Nurse Practice Act not only officially organizes the field of nursing but it also sets forth rules, guidelines, and disciplinary processes. Complying with it is essential to developing a great nursing career, and it's the ultimate authority on handling violations. Every nurse in South Carolina must understand it completely to safeguard their professional license.
Authorized Acts
As some of the most highly trained professionals in the United States, nurses are responsible for numerous tasks, making them indispensable in nearly every subfield. However, that doesn't mean they can do anything they deem medically necessary. The South Carolina Nurse Practice Act authorizes them to perform the following actions specifically.
Conducting Health Assessments
Patients typically meet with nurses for routine check-ups or because they're experiencing some kind of medical malady. It's the nurse's job to evaluate a patient's symptoms and overall health so that they and/or the doctors can decide how to treat the patient from there.
Assessments mainly involve measuring vitals, asking questions, performing tests, and reviewing a patient's personal and family medical history. Nurses use the information they obtain to update the patient's records, determine possible causes behind illnesses or conditions, and prescribe treatments or medications.
Medication Administration
To be effective, many medications require administration at certain moments or intervals and/or in specific ways and dosages. Sometimes, the slightest error in the timing, method, or amount can render the medicine useless or even dangerous.
Nurses are charged with administering medication to maximize a patient's chances of improvement or comfort. They must have the skill and patience to deal with resistant, unresponsive, forgetful, and cooperative patients alike.
Meeting Basic Needs
Medicine and other treatments are not the only things that patients need. Depending on their ailments, they may also require assistance with basic everyday tasks, like grooming, hygiene, eating, changing bedsheets, using the bathroom, and getting in and out of beds, wheelchairs, cars, tubs, and other places. These are all tasks that nurses tend to handle.
Task Delegation
When there are many patients with many unique requirements or demands, nurses must be able to delegate some tasks from the to-do lists. Nurses in leadership positions may divide responsibilities among other nurses under their supervision, who may, in turn, give assignments to other medical staff, such as interns or licensed practical nurses.
Of course, nurses who delegate are ultimately responsible for ensuring that the tasks are done properly and correcting the assignees as necessary.
Providing Counseling and Education
Most patients lack the kind of medical expertise that nurses have. That's why nurses are expected to offer counseling and education as needed for patients who must follow certain guidelines or change their lifestyles to improve or maintain their health.
Nursing students require education from experienced nurses as well. They can only learn so much in classrooms. When students have opportunities to gain hands-on experience in medical facilities, registered nurses must act as their supervisors, advisors, and real-time instructors.
In-Home Care
Certain conditions, circumstances, and health plans could lead a patient to require care at home rather than in a medical facility. In these cases, nurses may visit their patients at home to provide all the aforementioned services in addition to doing laundry, cleaning the house, sorting through mail, paying bills, transporting the patient to and from appointments, and more.
Collaboration with Other Health Professionals
While nurses are essential to healthcare, they are not the only professionals whose skills and knowledge are vital to the treatment of patients. They are expected to work closely with other important staff members, such as doctors, physicians, technicians, and administrators. Collaboration is the surest way to guarantee quality care.
Performing Research
Some nurses have the training and experience to take on research projects about health and nursing. The aim is to understand the medical needs of certain communities, regions, or populations and to help the field of nursing evolve accordingly. Research could also involve enhancing general comprehension and treatment of the human body.
Prohibited Acts
Although nurses are entrusted with all these responsibilities and more, there are other things that they're not allowed to do. According to the South Carolina Nurse Practice Act, the following actions can land a nurse in trouble with the South Carolina Board of Nursing, threatening their license.
Acting Outside Scope of Practice
Clearly, nurses in South Carolina have many abilities and responsibilities. Nevertheless, there are numerous other tasks and procedures that are reserved only for doctors, physicians, and other medical professionals. Working outside their scope of skill and authority is a punishable offense for nurses.
Patient Abandonment
When a nurse accepts a patient assignment, the nurse must do everything in their power to care for that patient until their shift or employment ends with reasonable notice. To do otherwise could be regarded as patient abandonment, putting their license at risk.
Breach of Privacy
The South Carolina Nurse Practice Act complies with the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), promising confidentiality and protection for a patient's personal and medical information. Any nurse who carelessly or deliberates violates that promise could be investigated and harshly disciplined for breach of privacy.
Fraud, Theft, or Deceit
Trusting nurses with their medical care puts patients in a vulnerable position. To respect that, nurses are never allowed to pretend like they have qualifications or authority that they don't have. They're also strictly barred from stealing or coercing money or favors from their patients. Also, anyone who is found to have cheated on their nursing exams may be stripped of their license.
Sexual Misconduct
There's another egregious way to take advantage of a patient's vulnerability—engaging in sexual activities. Nurses may never have such intimate relationships with their patients, with or without consent. Misconduct like this subjects a nurse to severe disciplinary measures.
Professional Incompetence
Even nurses who technically passed all their exams may not be good at their jobs, either due to apathy or ignorance. If they consistently neglect patients, fail to maintain accurate records, make errors that directly impact the patient's health or comfort, or lean heavily on other staff members to complete or help with their assignments, the South Carolina Board of Nursing may question whether they should get to keep their licenses.
Alcohol or Drug Abuse
Nursing demands high degrees of energy, alertness, quick thinking, and physical skill; there is no room for the dulled senses and mental unclarity caused by drug and alcohol abuse. This is especially true if the drugs are obtained by false prescriptions. Although the South Carolina Board of Nursing will commonly offer rehabilitation and psychological treatment programs for nurses who are guilty of this violation, their licenses could still be sanctioned.
Failure to Report Violations
Nurses are primarily responsible for complying with the South Carolina Nurse Practice Act themselves. However, in the interest of patient care and public health, they must also be willing to report violations from other nurses to the South Carolina Board of Nursing, should they notice any. Otherwise, the board may consider them complicit and partially responsible for any harm that befalls the patients or community as a result of the violations.
Scopes of Practice
Nurses are necessary in many different capacities and medical fields. For that reason, the South Carolina Nurse Practice Act names and defines several specific types of nurses to ensure that every subfield employs the proper staff.
Registered Nurse
In South Carolina, a registered nurse is authorized to perform all the actions previously described. They have the ability and obligation to address everything that the typical patient needs that wouldn't be handled by a doctor or physician.
Depending on the subfield where they develop their careers, registered nurses may specialize in responsibilities particular to certain demographics, disciplines, or medical conditions. For instance, you may find registered nurses who are especially skilled in oncology, cardiology, podiatry, gynecology, gastroenterology, pediatrics, and more.
Licensed Practical Nurse
Although a registered nurse can help patients with tasks regarding hygiene, sanitation, grooming, comfort, and similar basic needs, they often delegate such responsibilities to licensed practical nurses, who are authorized for the same.
Licensed practical nurses can also perform medical tests, educate patients, do check-ups, assist with evaluations and treatments, and handle administrative work. In short, they can do anything and everything that helps registered nurses and doesn't require more specialized training or certification.
Advanced Practice Registered Nurse
Simply put, an advanced practice registered nurse is a general registered nurse with additional education or certification, as well as ample experience. They tend to be more involved than registered nurses in things like research, data analysis, healthcare system improvement, and the more specialized roles listed below.
Certified Nurse Midwife
Female bodies are distinct from male ones, so it stands to reason that they need care from experts in those subjects. That's where certified nurse midwives come in.
Midwives provide counsel and care with everything from fertility issues to all three pregnancy trimesters, labor, delivery, recovery, and newborn health. Sometimes, they work with OB/GYNs to ensure the process is as smooth and healthy as possible for the mother, particularly if the pregnancy is high-risk.
Many women also see midwives for check-ups that have nothing to do with fertility, pregnancy, or postnatal health. For example, midwives can handle breast exams, pap smears, birth control, and treatment for infections.
Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist
Surgeries and other invasive procedures are usually most successful with anesthesia. It's not as simple as administering the drug, though; the dosage must be carefully measured according to the procedure and the patient's gender, age, weight, vital signs, and how any pre-existing health issues could interact with the drugs.
Considering the complexity of this discipline and the importance of getting it right every time, only certified registered nurse anesthetists can perform such tasks. They may collaborate with other anesthetists and doctors as well.
Clinical Nurse Specialist
When an advanced practice registered nurse has gained sufficient knowledge or experience, they may become a clinical nurse specialist. Their authority is expanded to include guidance and supervision over nursing teams and other personnel, and they have a stronger role in healthcare planning and management in their sphere of influence.
Nurse Practitioner
Nurse practitioners can and often do help care for individual patients, but their focus is often on managing and improving healthcare for entire families, groups, or communities. By researching issues affecting certain people and analyzing patient data, they play a critical role in disease prevention, system improvement, and health education wherever they practice.
Why You Should Contact the Lento Law Firm
There are countless reasons why a nurse in South Carolina might face possible sanctions for their license, ranging from unfortunate misunderstandings to genuine but fixable mistakes. It doesn't have to mean the loss of a nursing license.
If the South Carolina Board of Nursing is investigating a complaint against you, it's time to rally up a defense for yourself. The Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team believes that every dedicated nurse deserves the best in legal knowledge, defense strategy, and absolute commitment, and their reputation proves it. No matter what's happening, they can safeguard your South Carolina nursing license.
Enlist the Lento Law Firm to Protect You
You need a thriving nursing career, and your patients need you. The South Carolina Nurse Practice Act should support you, not hinder you. If you need clarification on how it works or assistance with handling a complaint, protect yourself with lawyers who are as passionate as you are. Get details now by contacting the Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team at 888.535.3686 or filling out a contact form.
