As a nurse licensed for practice in California, you may already be aware that the California Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) employs an online licensing enforcement portal it calls BreEZe. While online systems may often save time and expense, the BreEZe system may have unanticipated and unwelcome impacts on nurses, who may see a substantial increase in disciplinary allegations, charges, and sanctions. Nurses may also endure greater reputational harm from false disciplinary allegations the online system facilitates and publishes. Retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team and its highly qualified administrative license defense attorneys if you face California Board of Registered Nursing disciplinary charges or encounter other issues with the BreEZe system. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for the skilled and experienced representation you need for your best outcome to California nursing license issues.

The Goal of BreEZe

As California's online licensing enforcement system's name BreEZe implies, California's Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) implemented the system to make nursing licensing complaints and license searches easier for patients and other healthcare consumers. The system's proponents evidently hope to make complaining against California nurses a figurative breeze (BreEZe) and an easy (EZ) breeze at that. Sarcastically, you probably can't wait. The system may also make nurse license applications and renewals easier. We'll see. Technology systems can have their own implementation issues, and the Department of Consumer Affairs' paper system may have worked well enough for you. But in any case, beware of the prospect for additional disciplinary allegations, complaints, and charges. Retain our skilled and experienced attorneys if you face the California Board of Registered Nursing discipline.

The Challenges of BreEZE Implementation

The California Department of Consumer Affairs has implemented the BreEZe system in stages for various licensing boards. The California Board of Registered Nursing, evidently an early adopter, is among the first state's licensing boards to adopt the online BreEZe system. Other professions already adopting the BreEZe system include boards, bureaus, or committees of barbering and cosmetology, behavioral sciences, occupational therapy, optometry, podiatric medicine, psychology, dentistry and dental hygiene, medicine, physician assistants, physical therapy, respiratory care, investigative services, and veterinary medicine. The California Board of Registered Nursing may still be using a mix of the paper and online systems, depending on the administrative action its officials are trying to take.

You may thus encounter greater challenges than ever in your dealings with the California Board of Registered Nursing, in part because its officials are still adapting to the online system, in part because they are still using parts of the old system, and because of their confusion at times, or your confusion, over which of the two paper and online systems to use. Beware the prospect of confusion. Be sure that you are using the right paper or online system and that the Board of Registered Nursing officials with whom you deal are also using the right system, the same one that you use.

Getting DCA Assistance Using BreEZe

The California Department of Consumer Affairs anticipates that the online BreEZe system will cause problems for nurses and for consumers trying to use the system. It therefore, offers extensive online video tutorials to train yourself in how to use the system. You may find it difficult to get help using the system without first assuring the Department of Consumer Affairs and its representatives that you have perused its video library, found the right resource, and watched it. However, the Department of Consumer Affairs does indicate that you may be able to reach a human to help you by calling the telephone number assigned to your board, in this instance the California Board of Registered Nursing. That telephone number is (916) 322-3350. BreEZe help is only available from 8 a.m. to 4:50 p.m. on weekdays, except later on the first and third Wednesdays of each month. Don't hesitate to retain us to contact and communicate with the California Board of Registered Nursing through the BreEZe system or through our own channels outside the BreEZe system.

BreEZe Training Tutorials

The online video training tutorials that the California Department of Consumer Affairs offers indicate both the uses to which the California Board of Registered Nursing is putting or will put the BreEZe system and the problems that you, other nurses, employers, patients, and other interested persons may have using the system. Here are some examples:

an Overview video reminds trainees that the BreEZe system constitutes the Department of Consumer Affairs' website;
a Search and View video shows trainees how to find your nurse license information online, including renewals, lapses, and discipline;
a How to File a Complaint video shows trainees how to complain against you for the Department and Board to pursue disciplinary charges;
a How to Register video makes it clear that you cannot access the system without registering for its use and creating a user profile; and
A password video describes steps to take after forgetting your password or otherwise getting shut out of the system.

Other online video training tutorials show how to apply for a nurse license through the system, how to submit a renewal request, how to update your license information, how to pay Board fees, how to get notifications from the Board about your license, and how to let someone else do these things on your behalf. This information gives you a clearer sense of the system's purpose and complexity.

What to Do If BreEZe Isn't Running Yet

The Department of Consumer Affairs indicates that the above early adopters of the BreEZe system initially use only the system's complaint filing and license search functions. It thus sounds like you, a licensed nurse, won't yet get any help from the system for license renewal, profile updates, notifications to the California Board of Registered Nursing of changes in your status, and other issues. The complaint and search functions are solely or primarily for patients and employers. The California Department of Consumer Affairs thus directs you to access the California Board of Registered Nursing webpages for your license application or renewal or to contact license enforcement officials. The Department of Consumer Affairs offers the following weblinks for the following California Board of Registered Nursing functions:

Applications: https://www.rn.ca.gov/applicants/index.shtml;
Licensing: https://www.rn.ca.gov/licensees/ren-faqs.shtml;
Enforcement: https://www.rn.ca.gov/enforcement/enf-faqs.shtml;
Complaints: https://www.rn.ca.gov/enforcement/complaint.shtml.

FAQs About Nursing License Applications

The California Department of Consumer Affairs also offers a series of Frequently Asked Questions with answers and related information about the BreEZe system. Here is a summary of the answers and information the FAQs share, together with some related tips.

DCA FAQs About Nursing License Applications

The Department of Consumer Affairs FAQ about license applications indicates that you, as a license applicant, may need to change the information you submitted on or with your application. Indeed, the Board of Registered Nursing may construe inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and missing updates that leave your submitted information incorrect as misrepresentations or misleading omissions. The Board of Registered Nursing may accordingly issue disciplinary charges against you for credential fraud, with the result of denying you a license, revoking a license the Board already issued to you or imposing other discipline.

Do not doubt the Board of Registered Nursing's authority to act on a patient complaint against you, solicited, encouraged, collected, and administered through the BreEZe system or to discipline you for credential fraud due to misleading inaccuracies in or omissions from your licensing file. The California Nursing Practice Act Section 2750 states expressly that every “licensee ... may be disciplined” under the Act. The Act's Section 2761 authorizes the Board of Registered Nursing to take disciplinary action against nurses on any number of specific grounds, including for “[p]rocuring their certificate or license by fraud, misrepresentation, or mistake.” Ensure that your BreEZe file information is accurate and updated. Let us help you ensure that your file remains so and help you defend and defeat any credential fraud or other disciplinary charges.

Unfortunately, the Department of Consumers Affairs FAQ about BreEZe license applications indicates that you cannot change your application once submitted. That technology restriction could seriously complicate your response to a later credential fraud charge. The DCA FAQ does indicate, though, that you may contact your board, in this instance the Board of Registered Nursing, to update and correct your licensing file. Once again, we can help you do so.

The DCA FAQ also indicates that you may attach electronic files to your online submitted BreEZe information or you may mail those documents to your board. Be sure your documentation is accurate, correct, and not altered. Documentation errors can also lead to credential fraud charges. The DCA FAQ further indicates that you can select a Details button in your BreEZe file to check for application gaps and deficiencies. If you dispute documentation gaps and deficiencies with the Board of Registered Nursing, let us help you resolve those issues so that you gain and keep your license and do not face credential fraud charges.

DCA FAQs About Disciplinary Complaints

The Department of Consumer Affairs FAQ about patient or other public or private complaints over your nursing practice indicates that the Board of Registered Nursing will identify you, the accused nurse, as the respondent and the patient or other person or entity accusing you as the complainant. The DCA FAQ on complaints then urges the use of the File a Complaint button to accuse a licensee nurse as the complainant wishes, even anonymously. The ability of anyone, connected with you and your nursing practice or not, to complain anonymously puts a nurse at an unfortunate disadvantage. Anonymous complainants could accuse you based on rumor, gossip, or speculation to retaliate against you for some duty you properly carried out that put the anonymous complainant at a disadvantage or purely to harass.

The Board of Registered Nursing and other state professional boards generally keep in place reasonable protective measures against frivolous, retaliatory, harassing, and abusive complaints. Boards retain disciplinary officials to review allegations for potential merit. A certain number of complaints get thrown out without investigation, because they simply do not allege any rule violation. Other complaints get spare investigation before dismissal, such as a cursory check of licensing records, or a simple request to an employer to verify work status, assignments, or dates. But any number of complaints, anonymous or otherwise, lead to extensive investigation.

If you learn that a Department of Consumer Affairs or Board of Registered Nursing investigator is making inquiries of your employer, patients, colleagues, or others, immediately retain us to help you respond proactively to the investigation. We may be able to head off formal disciplinary charges by gathering your exonerating evidence and presenting it to the investigator, whether the investigator reaches out to you for evidence or an interview or not. If the investigator does contact you for information, documents, or an interview, let us help you prepare and respond. Any error, omission, or inconsistency you show in your responses could result in disciplinary charges for failing to cooperate with the investigation. We can help you ensure that your investigation responses are accurate, consistent, and complete.

We provide more detail about license disciplinary proceedings below. But an outline of the complaint and disciplinary process includes that after investigation, Board of Registered Nursing disciplinary officials will determine whether to pursue disciplinary charges against you, based on the investigation report. If the Board does not pursue charges, you may hear nothing. The Board may instead simply leave your investigation file open until sure that no new information might result in charges. If the Board does pursue formal charges, it may request the assignment of an assistant state attorney general or other state administrative lawyer or official to prepare the formal charge to enter in the state's administrative procedure system, about which we explain more below. You will, though, receive notice of the formal charge, at which point you should surely retain us to defend your administrative proceeding and gain you the best possible disciplinary outcome.

DCA FAQs About License Searches

The Department of Consumer Affairs FAQ about license searches indicates that any member of the public who registers to use the BreEZe system may search for licensee information. The licensee information that anyone may discover about you, as a nurse whom the Board of Registered Nursing has licensed, includes your name, your previous names, and your license type, license status, license expiration date, practice location, areas of practice, and public disclosure documents.

A public disclosure document is the licensing board's record of discipline for public viewing. Confidential disciplinary records may include protected patient identification, patient health information, colleague identification and employment information, and the complainant or witness identification and information, that the licensing board is not authorized to publicly disclose. The public disclosure document represents a careful winnowing of confidential information but disclosure of enough information for the public to understand what the disciplined nurse did wrong. That disclosure could include not only details that lower the disciplined nurse's reputation for competence and integrity but also embarrassing and even shaming details or general information about alcohol or drug use, pornography or sexual assault, and similar controversial and negative matters.

California, its Department of Consumer Affairs, and the BreEZe system are not unique in that respect. State nursing boards across the country publish disciplinary action reports for public search and viewing. But the prospect of such a public disclosure should remind you of the critical need to retain our highly qualified attorneys for your disciplinary defense. Do not underestimate the potential impact of disciplinary sanctions. Not only could you lose your license to suspension and revocation, and lose your nursing employment and career along with the discipline, but you could also lose your reputation and everything else that goes along with that loss.

Consider one other note of concern, one that may have already occurred to you, about the extensive information and detail that the Department of Consumer Affairs now makes readily publicly available about you on its BreEZe website. You may have substantial interests in keeping private the above details of your present and past identity, professional license status, workplace location, work field, personal habits, and predilections revealed in a disciplinary public disclosure report. You may have an ex-spouse, nosy neighbor, wannabe romantic partner, stalker, or stranger who would love to learn these details about you to locate you, use them against you, or alarm, embarrass, and manipulate you with them. Let us help you review your non-disclosure and other protective rights with you and advise you of relief that may be available from the Department of Consumer Affairs, Board of Registered Nursing, or other state and federal agencies having responsibilities to protect you.

DCA FAQs About Logins and Passwords

The Department of Consumer Affairs FAQ about login procedures indicates that you will need a username and password to access the BreEZe system, to add to the dozens of usernames and passwords you likely already have. If you are not yet licensed and need to apply, or are a member of the public trying to use the BreEZe system to complain about a nurse or find a nurse's profile information, you may create a BreEZe account for those purposes.

When you first register and create an online BreEZe account, BreEZe must send you a registration email for you to confirm. Unfortunately, BreEZe has been sending those emails in a way that has them go to email spam folders. The DCA login FAQ indicates that BreEZe thinks it has applied a fix but isn't sure and is hoping that you'll be patient while checking your spam folder. Hope that BreEZe is better with the password and login security of its accounts than it is with sending its official emails to spam, or you may face identity theft and misuse of your BreEZe account to complicate your licensing status. Let us know if you receive a Board of Registered Nursing complaint that your BreEZe file information is inaccurate, and you discover its hacking and corruption. We can help you defend disciplinary charges relating to the dispute.

The DCA login FAQ indicates that you get six entry attempts before BreEZe locks you out of your account, without saying how long you must wait or what you must do to regain attempts and access. The DCA login FAQ does say, though, that you might accidentally retire your account, without indicating how that retirement might happen. If you do accidentally retire your account, you must try to reach a BreEZe official using BreEZe's online Contact Us service at the top right of the home page.

DCA FAQs About Payments

The Department of Consumer Affairs FAQ about paying BreEZe for the privilege of maintaining a required nursing license indicates that BreEZe should be giving you electronic receipts for your payment so that you can prove those payments if denied or use those receipts for tax, reimbursement, or other purposes. You must now pay BreEZe by Visa, American Express, Discover, or MasterCard. If you want to pay by check, you must deliver the check to your licensing board. The DCA payment FAQ does not indicate that you are able to mail a check or to pay using cash in person. You may, however, make partial payments using an authorized credit card.

DCA FAQs About License Renewals

The Department of Consumer Affairs FAQ about renewing your nursing license has no information beyond stating that you should get a BreEZe email confirming your submission of a renewal request, with your licensing board's message on that email. Check your spam folder. Keep in mind the care, caution, and diligence you need to devote to renewing your California Board of Registered Nursing license. Failure to timely renew your license may require you to complete additional steps, wait additional periods, suspend your nursing practice and employment while temporarily unlicensed, and wait longer than you'd hoped for your non-renewed license to once again be active.

The California Board of Registered intimates those warnings throughout its detailed license renewal information and instructions. The Board also indicates that Section 121 of the state's Business and Professions Code allows you to continue your nursing practice “pending license renewal, providing the renewal fee has been submitted timely and all renewal requirements have been met.” The flip side of that statement is that you must not practice nursing if you have failed to timely pay for renewal or failed to meet all renewal requirements. Those requirements include continuing nursing education.

Keep in mind that your unauthorized nursing practice without a current license is a ground for discipline, even if you hold a non-renewed license that you still intend to renew after its lapse. State nursing boards across the country, including the California Board of Registered Nursing, tend to patrol that line closely. Any state nursing board that starts to let nurses slip in their license renewal practices will likely soon see a significant increase in late renewals and non-renewals, with attendant unauthorized practice. Thus, state nursing boards tend to have presumptive disciplinary sanctions for practice on a non-renewed and lapsed license, such a thirty-day suspension. Even a short suspension means interrupting your nursing practice, including notifying your employer and disrupting your patient care and relationships. As the Board of Registered Nursing expressly warns, employers may not be as patient with non-renewal mistakes as the Board of Registered Nursing might be. You could lose your job over a non-renewal slipup, if your employer wants to be more cautious.

Your first California nursing license lasts for two of your birthdays, not just two years from the issuance date. That rule puts your license's expiration on your biennial birthdate, perhaps making it easier to remember. You shouldn't be surprised by your need to renew your nursing license in any case, though, because the Board of Registered Nursing mails a renewal notice to your official address three months before your biennial birthday renewal date. You may also have signed up for BreEZe email notifications. Check your spam folder. However the Board of Registered Nursing also warns that “nurses are responsible for renewing their licenses even if they do not receive a renewal notice.” Consider calendaring your next biennial-birthday renewal deadline each time you renew your license.

DCA Technical FAQs

The Department of Consumer Affairs FAQ about technical issues with your use of its BreEZe system indicates that you may face difficulties playing its online video training tutorials on your computer, in which case you may need to “disable your pop-ups” to get the videos playing. The DCA technical issues FAQ doesn't suggest how you can disable your pop-ups. You may, though, use an Explorer, Firefox, Safari, or Chrome browser when accessing the BreEZe online portal and its services. The DCA technical issues FAQ, though, does warn you to use a laptop or desktop computer, not a smaller personal device, to create your BreEZe account, link your account to a license, submit a license application, or renew a license using the system. Those functions apparently won't work on a cell phone or tablet.

Other DCA FAQs

The Department of Consumer Affairs FAQ about other problems using the BreEZe system instructs you how to “link a license or additional licenses” to your profile. The DCA other problems FAQ does not explain what linking a license means or why you might want or need to do it. Presumably, though, linking is appropriate, may be helpful, and may even be necessary if you hold two or more licenses, such as an LPN and RN or an RN and APRN. Apparently, you may have separate BreEZe profiles or accounts for each license until you link them. The reference and instructions may also apply to licenses you hold in other healthcare fields from other licensing boards. The instructions do not say whether linking different-field licenses is possible, appropriate, helpful, or required.

The DCA other problems FAQ reminds licensees that they may authorize a representative to manage their BreEZe account for them, including to submit renewal requests, make payments, and update or correct license or profile information. The information explains that you might want an office assistant to do those tasks for you. If you do designate a representative, be sure (a) that they are capable, (b) that they are diligent, (c) that you trust them, and (d) that you and the representative understand which of the two of you will be performing which functions. Adding a representative may sound like it could help. But it could also complicate, confuse, and frustrate your compliance with basic requirements, especially renewal obligations.

The DCA other problems FAQ ends with a reminder of the means by which one can reach the Department of Consumer Affairs or the appropriate licensing board, already explained above.

Managing Your California Nursing Board Issues

The above information on the California Department of Consumer Affairs' online BreEZe system for consumer complaints against nurses and other professionals, consumer searches for nurse information, and professional license applications and renewals should remind you that managing your nursing licensure is a significant duty that at times can take significant diligent attention and care. If nurses and other professionals have one common professional problem, it may be that after they get their license to practice their profession, they tend to neglect managing their license issues when every licensed professional has at least some licensing issues to which to regularly attend. Consider this list of licensing issues that you, as a nurse holding a California Board of Registered Nursing license, will or may face:

updating your license information with address and name changes;
updating your license information relative to changes in your license status;
notifying the licensing board of criminal convictions or other disqualifying circumstances;
timely completing continuing education for license renewal;
timely applying for license renewal;
disclosing accurate information about potentially disqualifying events on renewal applications;
responding to disciplinary investigations;
answering and defending disciplinary charges; and
placing your license on inactive status or other appropriate status on retirement or withdrawal.

We can help you with most or all of the above nursing license issues. The following information provides further information on discipline-related issues.

California Nursing Board Protective Procedures

If you face California Board of Registered Nursing disciplinary charges out of a complainant's use of the BreEZe complaint system or by other means, our highly qualified attorneys will have substantial available administrative procedures to invoke to strategically and effectively defend you. You have a right to constitutional due process to protect your liberty and property interest in your nursing license against arbitrary and capricious government action. The California Nursing Practice Act's Section 2750 fulfills the state's obligation to provide you with due process relative to Board of Registered Nursing disciplinary charges by incorporating California's Administrative Procedure Act. The state's Administrative Procedure Act provides the following contested-case procedures that our attorneys can deploy for your best license disciplinary outcome:

the Board must notify you in advance with the detail of the disciplinary charges;
the Board must disclose in advance the evidence it will use at the hearing when we request it;
Board representatives may attend pre-hearing conferences at which we can advocate and negotiate for voluntary dismissal of charges in favor of remedial measures preserving your license and reputation;
if the Board instead proceeds with charges, an administrative law judge will conduct a hearing at which we can present your exonerating witnesses and other evidence;
we may cross-examine any adverse witnesses at the hearing and otherwise challenge the Board's incriminating evidence;
we may also put on a defense case for mitigating any potential sanctions in the event the administrative law judge finds misconduct;
we may appeal an adverse decision from the administrative law judge to the state administrative Appeal Board and
if the Appeal Board affirms an adverse decision of the administrative law judge, we may file a writ with the state Superior Court challenging the Appeal Board decision.

Alternative Special Relief

Keep in mind that throughout your California Board of Registered Nursing license disciplinary proceeding, we may attempt to advocate and negotiate with the state assistant attorney general handling the matter, ombuds officials the state employs, and any outside counsel the state retains in an effort to gain you alternative special relief. Depending on your circumstances and the nature of the disciplinary charge, we may find risk management officials who have the inclination and authority to relieve you of the disciplinary charge, again perhaps in exchange for your agreement to remedial measures that you can readily perform. Those measures may include additional nursing education or training, counseling, mental or physical evaluation, mentoring, monitoring, and supervision. Remedial measures would not only save your license and may save your job but could also preserve your reputation and record, with no indication of discipline.

California Nursing License Reinstatement

If you have already lost your California nursing license to disciplinary charges, and you have exhausted all avenues for potential relief, then we may be able to help you gain the reinstatement of your license. California Nursing Practice Act Section 2760.1 authorizes the Board of Registered Nursing to reinstate a revoked or suspended license on certain conditions and terms. You must file a petition for reinstatement and appear at a hearing at which your witnesses, other evidence, and arguments constitute clear and convincing evidence of your qualification for reinstatement. The Board may hear your petition or may request an administrative law judge to do so at Board option. The state attorney general will have a representative at the hearing to oppose your petition.

The hearing official or panel may grant your petition only after a wait of from one year to three years, depending on certain circumstances, although the Board has the authority to shorten the three year period to as little as one year. The decision to reinstate may impose terms and conditions. Let us help you evaluate your right to reinstatement, prepare your petition, and make your best case before the board.

Qualifications of Nursing License Defense Counsel

In all your dealings with the California Department of Consumer Affairs and Board of Registered Nursing, keep in mind not only your need for legal representation and advocacy but also your need for highly qualified license defense attorney representation. Professional licensing matters and proceedings are administrative in nature. Administrative law, rules, and procedures differ markedly from criminal or civil court law, rules, and procedures. Do not retain an unqualified local criminal defense attorney, civil litigator, or transactional attorney. Their unfamiliarity with the applicable administrative law, rules, and procedures, and their inexperience in this unique administrative medical professional licensing forum, would keep them from providing you with the strategic, sensitive, and effective representation you need, and our highly qualified attorneys can provide.

Premier Nursing License Defense Available

If you are a California nurse facing California Board of Registered Nursing disciplinary charges or having licensing issues relating to California's BreEZe online licensing system, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team to represent and defend you for your best licensing outcome. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now.

California’s BreEZe Online Enforcement System for Nursing Licensure