Nurses who suffer license discipline face immediate impacts on their nursing practice, employment, and career. You can lose your job, patients, practice, and reputation not just over license suspension or revocation but even for minor discipline like reprimands and probation. Yet just because a state nursing board, official, or panel imposes discipline after a hearing doesn’t mean that the sanction will stick. You likely have a right to appeal the decision if you can demonstrate a material error or procedural irregularity related to the decision. Retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team for your disciplinary appeal. Don’t lose your nursing job and career to license discipline. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our strategic and effective appeal representation.
State Nursing Board Authority to Discipline
Your state nursing board has substantial authority to discipline. State nurse practice acts establish state nursing boards specifically to license nurses for patient and public protection. See, for example, the Nevada Nurse Practice Act creating the Nevada State Board of Nursing and empowering it to license nurses and regulate nursing. The state’s Nurse Practice Act also routinely empowers the state’s nursing boards to discipline nurses who violate the state’s Nurse Practice Act. Again, see the Nevada Nurse Practice Act expressly empowering the Nevada State Board of Nursing to suspend, revoke, or otherwise discipline the license of a nurse who commits one of the misconduct grounds the act enumerates. Your state nursing board has similar statutory authority to discipline your license. Don’t doubt that authority. Instead, deal with discipline through an appeal. Let us help you pursue your appeal rights.
Right to Appeal State Nursing Board Discipline
While state nursing boards have the authority to discipline nursing licenses, state nursing practice acts generally grant the accused nurse a right to appeal an adverse disciplinary decision. See, for example, the Nevada State Board of Nursing disciplinary process, recognizing an accused nurse’s due process right to appeal an adverse decision imposing discipline. See, likewise, the Washington State Board of Health disciplinary procedures, promising a right to appeal by sending the Adjudicative Services Unit an appeal letter. The right to an appeal is a traditional feature of adjudicative matters generally. It may or may not be a constitutional right, depending on the due process the hearing procedures offer, but you’ll likely find statutory or regulatory support for an appeal of your state nursing board discipline. Let our attorneys confirm and pursue your appeal rights.
Appeal from Final Board Decisions
One significant limitation on your right to appeal board decisions is that your appeal right generally arises only after a final decision of the board. You cannot generally take multiple appeals from every procedural decision along the way toward the board’s final decision in your matter. You must instead wait until the board concludes its procedures with a final decision. That conclusion typically comes after the board conducts a formal hearing and issues a written decision. This final judgment rule both simplifies procedures, so that you have only one procedure going on in one forum at once, while also saving the appellate body from having to deal with multiple appeals. The final judgment rule also avoids confusion over which forum, the board handling the initial procedure or the appellate panel reviewing the board decision, is in control at any one time. Appellate bodies also have a hard time taking aim at a moving target. You must thus generally wait for the board’s final decision after hearing to take your appeal. We can help you determine when you’ve reached a final board decision for appeal.
Rehearing Before Appeal from Board Decision
You may also have to exhaust, or want to exhaust, other review procedures before your state nursing board before taking an appeal. Some state nurse practice acts permit, encourage, or require that an aggrieved nurse ask the nursing board to reconsider its decision before the nurse takes an appeal from the nursing board’s decision. Other nurse practice acts permit a nurse to move for reinstatement of a license on various grounds. Ohio’s Nurse Practice Act, for instance, authorizes the Ohio Board of Nursing to reinstate a license that the Board previously revoked or suspended, on certain grounds. We can help you determine whether you must move for rehearing or reconsideration, or whether it would be advantageous for you to do so, before taking an appeal. The board may, for instance, have made a blatant error in its decision that the board would likely correct when called to its attention on a motion for reconsideration. Indeed, a clear, correctable error is generally a compelling ground for correction of the decision.
State Nursing Board Decisions to Appeal
Not every decision of your state nursing board warrants an appeal. First, only the party aggrieved by the hearing decision has the right to appeal. You would have neither a right to appeal nor a reason to appeal if, for instance, the hearing decision dismissed the disciplinary charge against you, found that you committed none of the alleged wrongs, and imposed no discipline against you, keeping your disciplinary record clean. On the other hand, if the hearing decision agreed with the disciplinary charges and imposed a draconian sanction such as license revocation or long-term suspension, then you would be an aggrieved party and have a right to appeal and a reason for appealing. Every other result falls in between, giving some right and reason to appeal but leaving the judgment open to your better discretion. For instance, a finding that you committed misconduct but imposing no sanction might leave you wanting to dispute the finding but not disturb the decision not to sanction. Even a finding of misconduct with a modest penalty like a reprimand or probation may not be worth appealing, depending on your case and circumstances. Let us help you make your best decision whether to appeal, based on the following factors.
Reasons for Appealing State Nursing Board Sanctions
Any hearing decision that prevents you from continuing your nursing practice gives you good reason to appeal. For instance, a hearing decision that you committed such serious misconduct as to warrant revoking your license would end your nursing practice and employment, unless you appealed. You’d probably be wise to do so, assuming any chance of your appeal prevailing. Yet you might also be wise to appeal a hearing decision that permits you to continue your practice but reaches such adverse findings and imposes such severe limitations and conditions as to disrupt your practice. Any decision that causes you to lose your employment, even for a reprimand, might likewise be worth appealing to preserve your employment and reputation. Again, let us help you decide whether to appeal. We may be able to articulate appeal reasons and grounds that you hadn’t even considered.
Risks to Appealing State Nursing Board Sanctions
Appeals typically carry few risks. One risk, though, is that the appellate panel or official might increase rather than decrease your sanction. Usually, the appellate panel or official either affirms or reverses the hearing decision, without tinkering with aspects of it. Appellate decision makers generally respect the judgment of the hearing panel except to correct legal and procedural errors. But some cases are unusual. The hearing decision may, for instance, have held that it would have imposed a more serious sanction if it believed that the law allowed it. The appellate decision maker may determine that the law does allow it and may therefore impose the greater penalty. The risk of an increased penalty may be small. But if you’ve only suffered a warning or reprimand, discretion may be the better part of valor. You may prefer not to appeal, lest the appellate decision maker issue a suspension or revocation. Let us help you weigh that risk. Another risk might be from the publicity or delay of an appeal, and its potential effect on your reputation and employment. Again, let us help you evaluate.
State Nursing Board Appeal Procedures
Another limitation on your right to appeal a board hearing decision is that you must satisfy the appeal procedures. Just as you cannot generally appeal a decision until the decision is final, to invoke the appellate jurisdiction, you must generally file your appeal timely, within the period the state’s nurse practice act or administrative procedure act provides. The California Board of Nursing, for instance, states that an appeal from its decision to deny a license must be within sixty days of the date of denial. A late or untimely appeal may deprive the appellate body of the authority to hear your appeal, even if your appeal is otherwise valid. You must also generally file the proper form of notice of appeal with the proper state appeal board or in the proper state court, if your appeal goes straight to court under the state’s administrative procedure act. The Ohio Administrative Procedure Act, for example, provides for an appeal to the state court of common pleas, while in Oregon, a nurse’s appeal of an Oregon Board of Nursing decision goes to the state’s court of appeals, not a trial court. Our attorneys can help you satisfy the appeal procedures to ensure your right to appeal your adverse board decision.
State Nursing Board Appeal Requirements
Once you determine to take an appeal from a final decision of your state nursing board, and you determine the proper forum, notice, and filing period, you must also satisfy the other requirements for an appeal. Appeals are often on the record that the state nursing board made of its decision, including any hearing transcript, hearing exhibits, docket sheet, and docket contents, including the written decision itself. You may have to order the transcript and ensure that the transcript and other record items reach the appellate body, whether a higher state agency, a state trial, or appellate court. You must then generally prepare and file an appeal brief citing the transcript and legal authority, and making a convincing argument for reversal of the decision below. Your appeal brief may also have to state the standard for review and meet other technical requirements. An oral appeal argument may follow. We can help you meet these and other appeal requirements to ensure that your appeal produces the best possible result.
Actions Pending Your State Nursing Board Appeal
If you decide to appeal your state nursing board decision, you may need or want to undertake other actions while your appeal is pending. Appeals can take substantial time, at least weeks and often months. During that time, you may hope to retain your nursing license and employment. If the decision from which you appeal imposes crippling sanctions, you may have to comply with those sanctions while your appeal is pending. If you are appealing a license suspension, you could lose your job and income while your appeal is pending. When you retain us for your appeal, we may be able to invoke your state nursing board’s procedures and discretion to gain a stay on the enforcement of the board’s decision until the appeal reaches its conclusion. We may, in other words, be able to buy you time, preserving your employment, income, and other advantages. We may also be able to reassure your employer and others that we are diligently pursuing your appeal, with a substantial likelihood of relief from the board’s decision. Let us help you not only with your state nursing board appeal but also with the collateral impacts of the board decision you wish to appeal.
Premier Nurse License Defense Available
If you have lost your nursing license due to disciplinary charges or suffered any other disciplinary sanction, retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team for your appeal of the adverse decision. Our attorneys have helped hundreds of nurses and other healthcare practitioners nationwide appeal and otherwise effectively contest their disciplinary charges. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our skilled and experienced appellate representation.