A Rhode Island nursing practice can be a very good thing for all of its advantages and rewards. Rhode Island combines a particularly good healthcare system with lots of nursing practice and employment opportunities, with a stable economy and pleasant cities and towns. Yet your criminal issues risk disciplinary charges from the Rhode Island Board of Nursing Registration. The Board of Nurse Registration could revoke your nursing license at any time due to your criminal issues. In that case, you would be unable to practice nursing in Rhode Island and might lose any nursing license you hold or seek in other states. Retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team to help you defend and defeat your Rhode Island Board of Nursing Registration disciplinary charges. Our skilled and experienced attorneys are available in Providence, East Providence, North Providence, Warwick, West Warwick, Cranston, Pawtucket, Woonsocket, Cumberland, Coventry, South Kingstown, North Kingstown, Johnston, Newport, and any other Rhode Island city or town. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our premier nursing license defense representation.
Rhode Island Nurse Discipline for Criminal Convictions
Rhode Island may have a relatively low crime rate compared to many other states, but criminal charges and convictions still occur in large numbers in Rhode Island. FBI statistics for the most recent year available show crimes of all kinds occurring all over the state. You are not alone if you’re facing Rhode Island criminal charges. Property crimes like theft and shoplifting are the most common, but crimes against the person, like assault, and against society, like drunk driving and drug crimes, are also common in Rhode Island. One wishes that it were not true, but nurses are among those committing crimes in Rhode Island. The Rhode Island Board of Nursing Registration publishes the discipline of many nurses every year for all kinds of misconduct including criminal convictions. Nationwide, criminal issues cause one out of every ten nursing board disciplinary actions. That means thousands of nurses suffer discipline every year for criminal issues. Indeed, 20% of discipline cases involve violations for unreported criminal convictions. You are not alone in facing nursing license issues relating to criminal charges. Let us help you defend your Rhode Island Board of Nursing Registration disciplinary charges.
Rhode Island Nurse Licensure Authority
The state legislature gave the Rhode Island Board of Nursing Registration the authority to license and discipline nurses in the state. Section 5-34-7 of the Rhode Island Nurse Practice Act authorizes the Board of Nursing Registration to license and regulate nursing practice in the state. Section 5-34-2 makes it unlawful to practice nursing in the state without a Board of Nursing Registration license. Section 5-34-29 makes it a criminal misdemeanor to practice nursing without a license. A first offense is subject to a $300 fine, and subsequent offenses are subject to a $500 fine and up to one year in jail. Don’t doubt the authority of the Rhode Island Board of Nursing Registration to discipline your license related to your criminal issues. Instead, get our help defending your disciplinary charges.
Rhode Island Nurse Licensure Requirements
Several sections of the Rhode Island Nurse Practice Act state the qualifications for the different types of nursing licenses the Board of Nursing Registration offers. Those qualifications include the education and examination requirements you met to gain your nursing license. The Act’s Section 5-34-10, applying to all nurses seeking a Board of Nursing Registration license, adds a good moral character requirement. Section 5-34-24 of the Rhode Island Nurse Practice Act further provides that the Board of Nursing Registration may deny, refuse to renew, or suspend or revoke a license on certain disciplinary grounds. Those grounds include a criminal conviction. Board of Nursing Registration Rule 3.3.1 requires applicants to authorize criminal history background checks. You likely authorized a criminal history background check when obtaining your license and should expect the Board of Nursing Registration to continue to monitor criminal case databases for nurse convictions. Let us help you determine your conviction reporting and disclosure requirements while also helping you defend disciplinary charges.
Example Rhode Island Nurse License Disciplinary Crimes
Rhode Island Nurse Practice Act Section 5-34-24 authorizes discipline for conviction of any “crime of gross immorality.” The Nurse Practice Act and related provisions of the Rhode Island laws of professional regulation and healthcare regulation do not define crimes of gross immorality. Other jurisdictions, though, do show the common categories of crime that boards of nursing registration may construe as disqualifying nurses for licensure or subjecting their license to discipline. Consider these categories of crime likely to implicate gross immorality. Let us defend you against any of these disciplinary charges.
Rhode Island Nursing License Discipline for Felony Crimes
The Rhode Island Board of Nursing Registration may consider a serious felony crime to be a crime of gross immorality. Felony crimes can certainly include serious crimes against the person, like murder, manslaughter, aggravated assault, sexual assault, kidnapping, false imprisonment, and robbery. Felony crimes can also include crimes against property like arson, burglary, and theft of property of substantial value. Felony crimes can also include crimes against society like drug possession, delivery, and manufacturing, depending on the substance and amount. These crimes could indicate to the Board of Nursing Registration that the nurse was a danger to patients, others in the nursing facility, and the facility’s property and other interests. Felony crime by a nurse could also subject the nursing profession to public embarrassment and shame unless dealt with prompt discipline.
Rhode Island Nursing License Discipline for Dishonesty Crimes
The Rhode Island Board of Nursing Registration could potentially consider certain crimes of dishonesty as ones involving gross immorality. Dishonesty crimes can include embezzlement, conversion, misappropriation, theft, and criminal fraud. The Board of Nursing Registration could construe these crimes as reflecting a danger to patient property, or facility property, or interests. The Board could also construe these crimes to indicate that the nurse might divert facility drugs, falsify patient records, and defraud Medicare or private insurers, placing the facility at risk of noncompliance.
Rhode Island Nursing License Discipline for Practice-Related Crimes
The Rhode Island Board of Nursing Registration could also potentially construe practice-related crimes as crimes of gross immorality. Examples of practice-related crimes include patient abuse, patient sexual contact, assaults against others in the nursing facility, diversion of prescription medications or other drugs, theft of facility supplies or equipment, and again, falsification of patient records and insurance billing records. These crimes may reflect that the nurse is a safety and security risk for patients and others in the facility, and a risk to subject the nursing profession to public embarrassment and distrust.
Rhode Island Nurse License Crime Discipline Factors
The Rhode Island Board of Nursing Registration may, under the above statutes and rules, have broad discretion to determine whether to discipline you under your criminal conviction. The Board of Nursing Registration is likely to consider several factors to decide whether to impose discipline in your case. A first factor may be the straightforward reprehensibility of the wrong, judged by its outrageousness. Murder, aggravated assaults, and sexual assaults are examples. A second factor may be the extent of harm the crime caused, whether in death or injury to persons, destruction or loss of property, or other interests. A third factor may be whether the crime occurred in the nursing facility or is likely to occur there in the future, such as patient abuse or drug diversions. Another factor is how much time has passed since the conviction without a repeat offense and what remedial or rehabilitative measures the nurse has completed to ensure good character. A final factor is whether the crime suggests the nurse’s impairment, for example, by drugs or alcohol dependency and addiction. Our attorneys know how to advocate for your disciplinary defense on these and other factors.
Defending Rhode Island Nurse Discipline for Crimes
Our attorneys may have several defenses they can advocate so that the Rhode Island Board of Nursing Registration does not impose discipline for your criminal issues. We may first be able to show that your crime was not one of gross immorality, under all the circumstances, and thus not disqualifying for licensure. We may alternatively be able to show that you got your criminal conviction expunged, set aside, overturned, or pardoned. We may be able to show that your crime harmed no one and caused no loss. We may also be able to show that your crime was not one that subjected any patient or other person in a nursing facility to any risk. We may also be able to show that so much time has elapsed since your conviction, without a repeat offense, and that you have undergone rehabilitation such as remedial training and education, confirming your fitness for continued nursing practice. These are just a few of the defenses our attorneys may be able to raise on your behalf to defend and defeat your disciplinary charges.
Differences Among Arrest, Charge, and Conviction
It can matter to your disciplinary outcome before the Rhode Island Board of Nursing Registration as to whether you only faced arrest, or faced criminal charges, or actually suffered criminal conviction. The Board of Nursing Registration should not construe an arrest or charge as proving anything relative to your conduct, only a conviction. Police release arrested suspects when they have misidentified them or misconstrued their innocent actions. Prosecutors abandon charges for lack of evidence, and courts dismiss charges on the same grounds and for constitutional violations. The Board of Nursing Registration may use your arrest or charge to investigate your underlying conduct, but in that case, we can help you muster your exonerating and mitigating evidence. If, on the other hand, you suffered a criminal conviction and the Board of Nursing Registration uses the conviction to establish the misconduct, we can still raise the above defenses to help you defend and defeat the disciplinary charge.
Differences Among Specific Crime Charges
We may also be able to defend your Rhode Island Board of Nursing Registration disciplinary charge based on your specific circumstances relative to the criminal issues. An extraordinary one-time situation may have triggered your actions, such as a family or financial matter, spousal injury or infidelity, medication reaction, or sudden mental event. We may be able to show that whatever happened in that instance would never happen again and would not, in any case, reach the nursing facility to impact patient care or facility operations. Let us investigate and prove your extenuating circumstances to defend against the disciplinary charges.
Rhode Island Nurse Duty to Report Criminal Issues
The Rhode Island Board of Nursing Registration will generally require you to disclose criminal convictions and other potentially disqualifying conditions on your license application or renewal application. Read the renewal forms carefully to ensure that you make all requested disclosures. The Board may construe your non-disclosure as credential fraud worthy of license revocation or non-renewal, even if you were only mistaken in not making the disclosure. Let our attorneys help you determine when and how to report your criminal conviction to the Board.
Rhode Island Nurse Licensing Procedures
You have a right to due process when facing the Rhode Island Board of Nursing Registration disciplinary charges. Rhode Island Nurse Practice Act 5-34-25 recognizes your due process right by stating the procedures for discipline that the Board of Nursing Registration must follow. Those protective procedures include notice and a formal hearing. We can invoke those procedures to help you defend and defeat your disciplinary charges. We can also take your appeal if you have already lost your hearing.
Premier Rhode Island Nursing License Defense
Your best move when facing Rhode Island Board of Nursing Registration disciplinary charges over your criminal issues is to retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team. We have successfully defended hundreds of nurses and other healthcare professionals in Rhode Island and nationwide against disciplinary charges. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our strategic defense representation.