Nursing is a naturally and financially rewarding career. Nurses licensed to practice in Massachusetts have special reasons to value and protect their license and career, given the state's strong and diverse economy, sophisticated healthcare system, and the critical need for nursing care. Yet you are likely well aware already that your criminal arrest, charge, or conviction could threaten your Massachusetts nursing license, resulting in disciplinary suspension or revocation. If you are a Massachusetts licensed nurse facing issues with criminal arrest, charge, or conviction, your best move is to promptly retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for the highly qualified license defense representation you need for your best disciplinary outcome.
Massachusetts Nurse Criminal Arrests
Massachusetts nurses, like nurses in other states and, indeed, like other professionals and non-professionals, face criminal arrest, charge, and conviction issues. A Journal of Nursing Regulation survey reports that about 10% of nursing board disciplinary actions involve criminal arrest, charge, or conviction. In the year of the survey, nearly 5,000 nurses and nurse license applicants nationwide suffered adverse nursing board action due to criminal conviction issues. All nurses face criminal issues, but more male nurses and licensed practical nurses face those issues than other nurses. Drug crimes, drunk driving crimes, and theft crimes were the most common issues. License probation and suspension were common sanctions, but violent crimes and crimes involving patient abuse drew stronger sanctions of license revocation. Failure to disclose a prior criminal conviction is another significant issue among nurses, affecting nearly 20% of all nursing license holders. You are not alone if you face nursing license issues due to criminal charges, arrests, or convictions. Let us help you resolve those issues favorably.
Massachusetts Nurse Licensure Authority
You must deal responsibly with the rules, regulations, and authority of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing when facing license issues due to criminal arrest, charge, or conviction. Section 14 of the Massachusetts nursing laws creates the Board of Registration in Nursing to license and regulate nursing practice in the state. Section 79 empowers the Board to enact rules and regulations governing nursing practice. You must retain your nursing license in the face of criminal issues if you wish to continue your practice. Section 80 of the Massachusetts nursing laws makes it unlawful to practice nursing in the state without an active license, with up to a $500 fine for each violation. Let us help you favorably resolve your Massachusetts licensure issues relating to criminal charges. You'll need to do so to preserve your Massachusetts nursing practice.
Massachusetts Nurse Licensure Requirements
The Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing requires that you continue to demonstrate your good character for safe and competent nursing and to hold onto your license against disciplinary charges. Section 74 of the Massachusetts nursing laws expressly requires good moral character for the licensure of a nurse within the state. Board of Registration Rule 8.02 on registered nurse licensing reiterates the good moral character requirement, while Rule 8.03 reiterates the licensed practical nurse (LPN) good moral character requirement. Criminal convictions, particularly those for violent crime, crimes affecting nurse competence or safety, and crimes reflecting poor moral character, are among the primary grounds for denying a nursing license.
Massachusetts Nurse License Discipline
Board of Registration Rule 7.03 further lists the grounds on which Board officials may discipline nurses for violations of Board conduct standards. Those grounds include several relating to actual or potential criminal charges, such as misusing drugs, domestic violence, theft crimes, and fraud. Your criminal charge and conviction may cause or require the Board of Registration to suspend or revoke your license. Board of Registration Rule 7.03 expressly includes conviction of a crime among its grounds for license discipline. Board rules do not articulate which convictions disqualify a nurse from continued licensure. Board disciplinary officials instead evaluate convictions on a case-by-case basis. Let us help you show Board officials that you remain safe, competent, and secure for continued nursing practice, notwithstanding your criminal arrest, charge, or conviction.
Differences Among Arrest, Charge, and Conviction
Several factors can influence the outcome of your Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing disciplinary proceeding based on a criminal issue. One of those factors is whether you only suffered criminal arrest or whether you also suffered a criminal charge and then a criminal conviction, as the following subsections explain.
Potential Effect of Massachusetts Criminal Arrest
Generally, criminal arrests do not alone bring a significant risk of disciplinary sanctions. First, your arrest may have been mistaken. Arrests generally require only probable cause to believe that the suspect may have committed a crime. Probable cause does not require any substantial degree of admissible evidence. Many arrests do not result in further criminal proceedings. The Massachusetts Board of Registration will generally not construe an arrest as having any probative value on disciplinary matters. Yet an arrest could point disciplinary officials toward an underlying disciplinary issue. Police occasionally let guilty suspects go after an arrest without pursuing further proceedings. The Board of Registration may not be so willing, in its duty to protect patients and the public, to ignore those underlying issues. Let us help you relieve disciplinary officials of any concern over your arrest based on the exonerating and mitigating evidence we identify together with any remedial alternatives to sanctions that we may recommend to you and negotiate with Board officials.
Potential Effect of Massachusetts Criminal Charge
A criminal charge following your arrest could bring a greater risk of disciplinary sanctions. Prosecutors generally approve and file criminal charges with the criminal court only after confirming that they have admissible evidence sufficient to obtain a conviction on the criminal beyond a reasonable doubt standard. Again, a charge does not mean that you committed the crime. Your criminal defense attorney may convince the prosecutor or court to dismiss the charge, or a jury may find you not guilty. However, the charge itself may cause Board of Registration disciplinary officials to investigate your underlying issues, never mind the outcome of your criminal proceeding. Criminal charges generally mean smoke, and where there is smoke, there is often fire.
Potential Effect of Massachusetts Criminal Conviction
A criminal conviction following your charges clearly brings the greatest risk of disciplinary sanctions. Courts convict defendants only on evidence beyond a reasonable doubt of the defendant's guilt. Board of Registration disciplinary officials may take that proof as presumptive evidence that you committed the conduct, the charges alleged, and the conviction found. Indeed, Board officials may decline any authority to ignore or minimize your conviction, depending on its reprehensibility and other factors. If you suffer a criminal conviction, let us advocate on your behalf that the conviction should not disqualify you from licensure and practice.
Differences Among Specific Crime Charges
Of course, the nature of your criminal charge and conviction can be the greatest factor influencing your Board of Registration disciplinary outcome. Some crimes are plainly more serious than others, generally reflected in the permissible or imposed sentence. Consider the following categories, recognizing that our highly qualified attorneys can help you defend disciplinary charges involving any of these categories of crime.
Potential Effect of Massachusetts Felony Crimes
While Massachusetts nursing law and rules do not expressly categorize disqualifying crimes by their status, other states do, and Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing disciplinary officials may follow suit by practice if not by law, rule, or regulation. Many states require or permit license suspension or revocation after a felony conviction. If you suffer a felony conviction, you face a substantially increased risk of license discipline. Let us help you give the Board officials the best possible context relative to your felony crime to give you the best chance of retaining your license.
Potential Effect of Massachusetts Violent Crimes
Murder, assault with a deadly weapon, sexual assault, domestic violence, and other Massachusetts crimes of violence may disqualify a nurse from licensure and practice because of the risk to patients of similar harm. Once again, though, the context for your violent crime conviction may determine whether we are able to help you preserve your license. We may be able to show that the violence bore no relationship to nursing practice, did not arise out of a deep character defect, and created no risk of patient harm.
Potential Effect of Massachusetts Crimes Involving Dishonesty
Crimes involving dishonesty, such as criminal fraud, theft, conversion, and embezzlement, can create a risk of Board of Registration license discipline. Safe, secure, and competent nursing practice can depend on a nurse's honesty. Nurses complete medical records, billing records, prescription records, and other documentation critical to patient care and orderly, lawful operation of their assigned healthcare facility. Dishonesty in that work can cause harm to patients, cause institution liability, and cause other risks. We know how to give context to convictions for crimes of dishonesty relative to nursing practice risks.
Potential Effect of Massachusetts Crimes of Moral Turpitude
Crimes of moral degeneracy or moral turpitude can likewise create disciplinary risks. Disciplinary officials must protect vulnerable elderly and minor patients, other patients, and healthcare professionals against health, welfare, and moral risks. Conviction for indecent exposure, corruption of a minor, lewd and lascivious conduct, and other crimes of indecency require our sensitive presentation of your disciplinary defense.
Potential Effect of Massachusetts Crimes Reflecting Impairment
Crimes suggesting a nurse's drug or alcohol impairment, such as drunk driving convictions and drug use or possession convictions, can create significant disciplinary risks. Disciplinary officials can construe such convictions as creating a risk that a nurse will practice will impaired, endangering patients, or will divert medications for personal misuse. Once again, our attorneys must exercise their sensitivity and skill when defending such disciplinary charges.
Potential Effect of Massachusetts Crimes Relating to Nursing
Crimes directly connected with nursing practice, such as patient abuse, colleague stalking, harassment, assault, drug diversion, patient property theft, or embezzlement of facility funds, are another category creating significant disciplinary risks. The obvious risk is that the nurse convicted of those crimes will repeat them, causing further harm to patients, the operation of the healthcare facility, or the reputation of the nursing profession. Let us help address any such charges before the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing.
Massachusetts Nurse Duty to Report Criminal Issues
You or your employer may have a duty to report your criminal conviction to the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing. You must accurately disclose events on the Board's license renewal application forms when renewing your nursing license. Those forms typically require disclosure of criminal convictions. You may also face a direct inquiry from the Board of Registration regarding the outcome of your criminal proceeding when they learn of it through other sources. Your facility may report your conviction on its own, out of duty and accountability to regulations. Let us help you comply with reporting requirements and answer disciplinary charges over an alleged failure to report.
Massachusetts Nurse Licensing Procedures
You have a right to constitutional due process when facing a Massachusetts Board of Registration in a Nursing disciplinary proceeding relating to criminal charges. Board rules recognize your procedural rights and protections. Board of Registration Rules 7.04 and 7.05 detail elaborate procedural protections for nurses accused of disqualifying misconduct. Due process means fair notice of the disciplinary allegations and a fair hearing before an impartial decision maker. Section 11 of the Massachusetts Administrative Procedure Act further defines adjudicatory procedures for contested agency cases, giving you a right of appeal and the potential for civil court review and relief in special cases of administrative error. Let us strategically invoke these procedural protections on your behalf to fight your disciplinary charges relating to criminal issues.
Premier Massachusetts Nursing License Defense
If you are a nurse licensed for practice in Massachusetts and have suffered criminal arrest, charge, or conviction, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team for your best license disciplinary outcome. We have helped hundreds of nurses and other professionals in Massachusetts and nationwide with arrest, charge, conviction, and related misconduct issues. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our skilled and experienced attorney representation.
