Nurses are the backbone of the healthcare system nationwide, making up a large percentage of employees at all healthcare facilities and taking on a significant amount of the workload. To attain their licenses and professional positions, nurses undergo years of strenuous schooling and challenging residency programs. But from just one accusation, this can all be at risk.
The pressures and demands of nursing often lead to difficult situations. When patients, colleagues, or superiors perceive these interactions as disrespectful, serious consequences to your license and professional career can follow. Accusations of disrespectful behavior are some of the most overlooked risks to nursing licenses in the United States, and even minor incidents can balloon into full-scale investigations into your conduct.
The Lento Law Firm is dedicated to defending nurses who come under fire for disrespectful behavior, and we can begin crafting a defense from day one. Compared to many other nursing violations, disrespectful behavior provides numerous opportunities for defense, whether defending against outright lies or explaining misunderstandings to the Board of Nursing. We will pursue whatever defense will result in the best outcome based on our vast experience representing nurses in similar situations.
If you are a nurse accused by your state licensing board of disrespectful behavior, you cannot rely on the truth to protect you. Call our Professional License Defense Team today at 888-535-3686 or contact us through our website to defend your license and career.
What Do State Nursing Boards Consider Disrespectful Behavior?
Everyone has different opinions on what constitutes disrespectful behavior in their daily lives. However, the details matter when it comes to your role as a nurse, as they can be the difference between keeping your license and ending up in disciplinary hearings before your state's Board of Nursing.
Disrespectful behavior can take many forms. In general, it refers to any actions or behaviors that undermine the respect and dignity most associate with patient and professional relationships. Every state Board will look at situations differently, but typical examples of disrespectful behavior include:
- Verbal Abuse: Raising your voice, using harmful or derogatory language, or speaking harshly to patients and coworkers during your shift.
- Dismissive and Condescending Attitude: Treating patients or coworkers as inferior, showing blatant favoritism, or disregarding patient and coworker concerns.
- Unprofessional Demeanor: Rolling your eyes, displaying aggressive tendencies or body language, or refusing to cooperate with assisting coworkers.
- Neglecting Communication Duties: Purposely failing to communicate with colleagues or pass along important patient care and safety information.
These disrespectful behaviors rarely involve direct harm to a patient, in contrast with issues like medication or surgery errors. However, behaviors that lead to uncomfortable or hostile work environments can decrease efficiency for everyone involved and increase workplace mistakes. Plus, patients may be dissuaded from making concerns known if they feel disrespected. That's why state Boards of Nursing care about disrespectful behaviors and why you must take accusations seriously before they affect your nursing license.
Disrespectful behaviors are often subjective, and nursing boards will investigate allegations on a case-by-case basis, considering the relevant factors. Even if two nurses say the exact same words, the context can influence whether punishment is warranted. When you work with Professional License Defense Attorneys, they can help you present your side of the story and limit the harm that allegations of disrespectful behavior can have on your license.
Reporting Disrespectful Behavior: What You Need To Know
Disrespectful behavior can result in the same license sanctions as other behaviors violating your state's Nurse Practice Act. However, the subjective nature of accusations complicates one important aspect: reporting. Nurses and other healthcare workers are often unsure of their responsibilities when it comes to reporting potential disrespectful behavior, which increases the risks and makes the entire situation more stressful.
Mandated Self Reporting
In some states, nurses are required to self-report incidents of misconduct or actions that could impact their ability to safely perform their duties and care for patients. For something like substance abuse or health conditions with apparent effects on a nurse's capabilities, this requirement isn't very confusing. On the other hand, disrespectful behavior is rarely so simple.
First of all, few people can identify their own disrespectful behavior unless it is purposeful. If you are stressed, overworked, or dealing with personal issues, it can easily manifest in potentially disrespectful behaviors—but that doesn't mean you are going out of your way to cause issues. Unless someone points it out, you may not be aware of any behavioral concerns.
Second, not everything that someone perceives as disrespectful truly is disrespectful. If a nurse curses out their boss, it would be hard to construe this as anything but rude. However, in less clear-cut situations, behaviors can get lost in translation, especially between nurses without a shared history.
It's easy to see how a nurse might not be aware of issues regarding disrespectful behavior, which can lead to a failure to report the problems to the Board of Nursing. The Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team can assist you in determining your personal responsibility in reporting disrespectful behaviors, as well as defend against accusations that you failed to report to the Board as required.
Reports from Others
In the vast majority of cases, reports of disrespectful behavior will come from someone other than the nurse themselves. The two most common reporters of this misbehavior are:
- Patients: When patients feel mistreated or disrespected, they may file complaints with the healthcare facility or the Board of Nursing directly.
- Colleagues and Supervisors: Coworkers or supervisors who identify disrespectful behavior and consider it a disruptive force in the facility may consider filing a report, especially if they are obligated under mandatory reporting regulations in your state.
In many cases, you will not learn who made a report against you for disrespectful behavior. This is intended to protect reporters from retaliation and maintain their privacy, but it can also cause issues for the nurse defending their behavior. Explaining why you did or said something is tougher without the full details of who is involved in a situation and the surrounding context.
The Lento Law Firm represents nurses nationwide and understands the primary license concerns arising from disrespectful behavior allegations. When you work with our Professional License Defense Team, you benefit from our years of experience and deep understanding of how your Board of Nursing operates. If someone makes allegations against you involving disrespectful behavior, we are here to help defend your license.
How Complaints and Reports Lead to Board Investigations and Sanctions
When your state's Board of Nursing receives a complaint or report, they don't immediately impose sanctions. Before they take action, there is a lengthy, complex process of investigating and negotiating. The earlier you contact the Lento Law Firm and empower us to guide you through the disciplinary process, the better your chances of avoiding serious license sanctions.
Initial Review of Complaint
The first step in any complaint regarding disrespectful nurse behavior is a review by the nursing board to determine whether they should proceed with an investigation. The Board will not conduct a deep dive into the allegations at this point, but it will throw out complaints that it feels have no merit whatsoever. Nurses may not learn of allegations against them until their state's nursing board decides to proceed with investigations for valid and reasonable allegations.
Investigation
If complaints against a nurse are reasonable and allege behavior violating nursing policies regarding disrespectful behavior or unprofessional conduct, they will want to learn more through an investigation. Board investigators will gather relevant evidence, including:
- Witness statements from patients, colleagues, superiors, and others who may know about the disrespectful behavior
- Documentation and patient records to potentially establish a history of misconduct
- Statements from the nurses themselves regarding the alleged incident
Typically, nurses will first learn of complaints during investigations, often when investigators reach out to set up a meeting to discuss the situation. The Lento Law Firm can represent you during investigations and throughout the following disciplinary hearings. Anything you say to investigators during this time can come back to hurt you later on, and our Professional License Defense Team will prepare you on what you can and cannot divulge to investigators.
Investigation Outcome and Punishment
When investigators conclude their evidence gathering, they will forward relevant information to the state nursing board, which then makes a final determination. If they do not see evidence of disrespectful behavior, they can close the case. Or, they can agree with the complaint and conclude that disrespectful behavior occurred. If so, the nurse can face punishments and license sanctions, which include:
- Formal reprimands of the nurse's behavior
- Probation of the nurse's license
- Fines
- Mandatory training
- License suspensions
- License revocations
In many cases, nurses and licensing boards reach a mutual agreement through negotiations with attorneys, in which case the nurse must accept the stated punishment. Other times, nurses decline an agreement and aim to defend their license in disciplinary hearings.
Disciplinary hearings before state Boards of Nursing look similar to criminal court proceedings, but the devil is in the details. The exact procedures vary, and licensing boards do not afford nurses all the rights that courts grant to alleged criminals. If you decide to proceed with hearings to defend against allegations of disrespectful behavior, the Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team can represent you during board hearings and help limit sanctions on your professional license.
If you don't receive the outcome you want from disciplinary hearings, many states allow for appeals—with conditions. Typically, the appeal window is extremely short, and you must identify a procedural error within the hearing to successfully appeal.
An appeal may still be possible if you already received disciplinary punishment, but time is of the essence. Contact the Lento Law Firm today to talk with our Professional License Defense Team and learn how we can help protect your nursing license from further harm.
False Allegations of Disrespectful Behavior
Few things are more stressful than accusations of disrespectful behavior, but false allegations are definitely included. Without any factual basis for the allegations, you may have an easier time defending your license with the help of Professional License Defense attorneys, but that doesn't mean it will be easy.
That being said, false accusations of disrespectful behavior are not always based on nothing. Because different people can interpret comments and actions in various ways, something that appears false at first may simply be an exaggeration of an actual event. Common reasons for false allegations of disrespectful behavior include:
- Miscommunications: Patients or colleagues can ascribe a completely different meaning to something they see you do or hear you say.
- Stressful Situations: During stressful moments on the job, such as time-sensitive care of an injured patient, coworkers can misunderstand curtness as disrespectful.
- Personal Conflict: If internal workplace drama or arguments get out of hand, a coworker may levy false accusations in an attempt to hurt your career or remove you from the workplace.
- Cultural Differences: Patients or coworkers from a different cultural background may take offense when none was given or simply mishear something due to language barriers.
- Exaggeration: With a mandatory duty to report disrespectful behavior, some coworkers may take their responsibility too seriously and report minor misbehaviors that the Board is not interested in investigating further.
- Retaliation: If a patient is dissatisfied with their care or feels that their health concerns were ignored, they may levy false accusations as revenge, even if there was nothing more you could do to assist them.
If you are falsely accused, it's important to remain calm and assess the situation with the help of the Lento Law Firm. Once they examine the situation closely, your attorneys can plan a defense to eliminate concerns arising from miscommunications or language barriers.
However, when allegations are malicious, it's even more vital to let your attorneys handle the situation. Coworkers or patients willing to fabricate misconduct allegations pose a serious risk to your license, and our Professional License Defense Team will do everything we can to expose these lies and protect your license.
Don't assume that your state Board of Nursing will uncover these lies during the course of their investigation. Without being proactive, there is a good chance you will be unable to counteract accusations when investigators suddenly confront you with alleged evidence and false witness statements.
False allegations are just one concern, and many more factors may be at play in your case. As soon as you learn that the Board is investigating you, contact the Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team. This gives our attorneys the greatest amount of time to build a defense and help you retain your license.
Can I Lose My License Because of One Single Incident of Disrespectful Behavior?
It may be surprising, but yes, your state's Board of Nursing may strip away your license or heavily restrict it after just one infraction. Nursing boards are tasked with upholding professional standards and protecting patients in the state from potential harm or wrongdoing. While not always as concerning as other misbehavior, policing disrespectful behavior falls under the jurisdiction of your nursing board.
For a first-time offense, you can generally expect less severe sanctions or even avoid them altogether, depending on the allegation's details and supporting evidence. However, repeated offenses significantly increase the risk of license sanctions, no matter how minor the misbehavior. This is because it may signal to the Board that previous disciplinary punishments are not having their intended effect.
Remember, the details of your disrespectful behavior allegations matter, but the deciding factor in what happens to your license is how well you can defend against them. Working with the Lento Law Firm from the outset of your case helps us paint you in the best light and limit the license sanctions you can expect from allegations of disrespectful behavior as a nurse.
What if Disrespectful Behavior Is a Response to a Disrespectful Patient?
Like most professions, nursing requires dealing with unruly and disrespectful customers. The primary difference is that nursing involves the health and well-being of patients, meaning on-the-job misbehavior has the potential to result in more harm than actions taken by a bank teller or salesperson, for example.
Your employer and state nursing board will scrutinize your reaction after a complaint, regardless of whether a patient was disrespectful first. Nursing boards expect nurses to maintain professionalism at all times, even in uncomfortable situations.
If you ever encounter a disrespectful patient, it's important to focus on the task at hand and never respond in kind to insults or threats. If you fear the patient may allege false accusations in the future, talk to your employer, take steps to remove yourself from dangerous situations and document the interaction. The Lento Law Firm can assist you at this early stage in preparing and documenting evidence crucial to future defenses.
Are Apologies to Patients an Admission of Guilt?
Many nurses feel compelled to apologize to de-escalate tense situations or smooth over misunderstandings, but this can come back to bite them. Apologizing to a patient doesn't necessarily mean a nurse is admitting guilt, but it can be a complicating factor if the patient later accuses them of disrespectful behavior. Apologies can sometimes be interpreted as an admission of wrongdoing, even though they are often said as a courtesy.
If your state's Board of Nursing is confronting you with an out-of-context incriminating quote, you must contact the Lento Law Firm as soon as possible. Without proper representation and defense, an apology may escalate into potential license sanctions and public reprimands. Working with our Professional License Defense Team, we can help put the quote in context and restore your reputation.
How the Lento Law Firm Can Protect Your Nursing License After Allegations of Disrespectful Behavior
Accusations, in all forms, can impact your professional career and make it harder to succeed as a nurse. While disrespectful behavior may seem like a minor issue at first glance, it can very easily manifest into serious consequences for your license and future career prospects. If you don't contact Professional License Defense Attorneys after learning of the allegations, it's easy to underestimate the impact of everything you do and say going forward. The Board of Nursing is not on your side and may use any incriminating information against you.
The Lento Law Firm represents nurses nationwide when accusations of disrespectful behavior threaten their licenses. But why is our Professional License Defense Team the best choice to protect your future? Due to our vast experience, we bring the following benefits to your license defense:
- Deep Understanding of Board Processes: Hearings and investigations by nursing boards operate under entirely different rules and regulations than typical criminal proceedings. Nursing boards must generally have good evidence of wrongdoing, but they don't need to meet the 'beyond a reasonable doubt' standard. The Lento Law Firm understands how nursing boards operate and will plan a defense that maximizes your chances of a successful license defense.
- Strong Advocate for Nurses: Having worked with so many nurses over the years, our Professional License Team knows just how important it is to protect good nurses from unfair punishment. We focus all our efforts on helping you return to the workforce in good standing so you can continue your vital work caring for patients.
- Consultants and Experts: In complex license hearings, expert witnesses who specialize in your field often provide monumentally important evidence that can make or break the case. The Lento Law Firm will promptly secure expert witnesses who bolster your side of the story, drawing from our experience representing nurses in your state.
You can't risk working with inexperienced attorneys when allegations of disrespectful behavior threaten your nursing license. The Lento Law Firm can start working on your case from the moment you learn of accusations, crafting the perfect defense to help you avoid sanctions and return to work. Call us today at 888-535-3686 or contact us through our website to get started on your license defense.
