If you lose your license due to disciplinary charges in one state, that discipline can affect your licensure in other states. If you hold a license in another state, your discipline could affect that license. Your discipline could also keep you from obtaining a new license elsewhere. Don’t let license discipline ruin your nursing career. Retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team to address your licensing issues. Let us help you achieve your best possible outcome to preserve and protect your nursing career. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our skilled and experienced representation.
State Nursing Board Disciplinary Authority
State nursing boards have the authority under state nursing practice acts to both license nurses and discipline nursing licenses. See, for example, the Texas Nursing Practice Act, establishing the Texas Board of Nursing to license and discipline licenses. See, for another example, the Wisconsin Nurse Practice Act, establishing the Wisconsin Board of Nursing for the same licensing and disciplinary purposes. Your state will have a similar nursing practice act giving your state board the authority not only to issue you a license but also to discipline your license once issued or to refuse to renew your license because of a disqualifying circumstance. Avoid discipline if you can possibly do so. Retain our premier attorneys to defend and defeat your disciplinary charges.
Disciplinary Authority for Discipline in Another State
State nursing boards generally have express authority to discipline a licensee not just for violations occurring in their state but also for discipline that another state nursing board has imposed for violations in that other state. See, for example, the Ohio Nurse Practice Act, authorizing the Ohio Board of Nursing to impose discipline on a licensee for license revocation, suspension, or other discipline “in another state or jurisdiction….” Indeed, discipline in another state is the first disciplinary ground the Ohio Nurse Practice Act lists. If you face disciplinary charges, get our help defending them so that you do not face discipline in other states or jurisdictions because of discipline in your current state of practice.
The National Practitioner Data Bank
If you face disciplinary charges in one state, you stand a good chance of having those charges affect your ability to practice nursing in other U.S. states and territories. State nursing boards generally post their disciplinary actions online in publicly accessible databases. They also generally report their disciplinary actions to the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB). Statutes, rules, and regulations require reporting of license actions to the NPDB. The NPDB is a repository for disciplinary action reports on healthcare practitioners, including not just doctors and dentists, but also nurses. Indeed, the NPDB accepts disciplinary action reports for RNs, LPNs, APNs, nurse midwives, other nurse specialists, CNAs, and other nurse aides.
Thus, if you held a nursing license in your current state but have lost it to discipline, that disciplinary action report should be in the NPDB unless your state board or the NPDB itself made an error in the reporting. You generally cannot hide your discipline either from the public, because of the online disclosures most states follow, or from other state nursing boards, because of NPDB reporting. If you are a nurse and have suffered state board discipline, chances are good that your disciplinary action report is in the NPDB. Don’t let that happen to you if you can avoid it. Get our skilled help defending and defeating your disciplinary charges.
State Board Use of the National Practitioner Data Bank
The purpose of the National Practitioner Data Bank is to enable state nursing boards, employers, hospitals, federal agencies, fraud investigators, and others interested in the qualifications of healthcare practitioners, to discover whether a practitioner has suffered discipline. The public does not have a general right to search the NPDB. Instead, only the above entities have the right to search the NPDB. Indeed, hospitals must search the NPDB every two years to ensure that the nurses and other healthcare professionals they employ remain licensed and have not suffered discipline disqualifying them from employment. State nursing boards evaluating nurse license applications or renewal applications routinely search the NPDB for license discipline in other jurisdictions. Beware the potential nationwide impact of license discipline. Get our help fighting your disciplinary charges.
Disclosure of License Discipline
Even if your state nursing board does not report your license discipline to the National Practitioner Data Bank or the NPDB itself makes some recording error so that your discipline does not show up in searches, you may still have to disclose your discipline to the state nursing board in another state or territory in which you hold a license. State nursing boards routinely require applicants for a new license or renewal license to report discipline on the application form. See, for example, the Arizona Board of Nursing’s elaborate license application requirements. Your disclosure of prior license discipline may, in that sense, be voluntary, but your state nursing board may well construe your failure to disclose discipline in another state as credential fraud, worthy of license discipline on its own. Don’t fail or refuse to disclose license discipline when your state nursing board asks you to do so. Instead, retain us to help you comply with disclosure requirements while showing state nursing board officials that you should retain your nursing license despite the discipline.
Practice in Another State on a Valid License
Just because you suffer license revocation in one jurisdiction does not necessarily mean that you cannot continue to practice nursing in another jurisdiction if you still hold a valid license in that other jurisdiction. Each state regulates its own nursing practice under its own nursing practice act and state nursing board. If you’re still good with your state nursing board and haven’t lost your license, then go ahead and practice in that state. Just don’t expect to jump from state to state, leaving disciplinary charges behind. As you’ve seen from the above discussion, you can’t generally run and hide from disciplinary charges. Discipline will likely eventually catch up with you through the National Practitioner Data Bank. The NPDB’s purpose is to ensure that healthcare practitioners can’t jump from state to state to continue their practice after discipline showing their unfitness or incompetence. Don’t run from your disciplinary charges. Instead, get our help defending and defeating your charges.
The Nurse Licensure Compact’s Multistate Effect
Thus, license discipline may be state-to-state but generally has national effects. Your problem lies in the fact that over forty states participate in the National Nurse Licensure Compact. The good part of the Nurse Licensure Compact is that it may readily qualify you for licensure in many other states based on your first licensure in your current jurisdiction. The Compact speeds and eases multistate licensing. But the bad part is that Compact legislation in each state promotes uniform licensing requirements, including recognizing disciplinary actions in other states. You lose your multistate licensing privileges when you lose your license in one state. Multistate licensure is a good thing when your disciplinary record is clean but becomes a bad thing when you suffer discipline. Let us help you defend your disciplinary charges or deal with the multistate impact of discipline you’ve already suffered.
Defending Your License in Another Jurisdiction
If you have already suffered license discipline in one state but still hold a valid license in another state, you’ll likely soon face a disciplinary investigation in that other state based on your prior discipline. That disciplinary investigation may come when you renew your license or at an earlier time when the state nursing board discovers your discipline. Retain us the moment you learn of a disciplinary investigation triggered by your license discipline in another state. We can help you respond to the investigation and any disciplinary charges that follow.
We can also help you make your best case that your discipline in another state should not affect your license in the state in which you want to continue your practice. That case may involve showing that your circumstances in the other state were unique, involving a one-time extraordinary event unlikely to repeat in your current state of licensure. We may also be able to show that you have rehabilitated your good skills, competence, and character after the prior event so that you present no risk to patients or the public in your current licensure state. Let us help you evaluate and establish the best possible defense of your license. Discipline in one state does not always warrant discipline in other states. Each case is unique.
Obtaining a New License in Another Jurisdiction
You may instead decide to apply for a new license in another jurisdiction after leaving the state in which you suffered license discipline. When you apply for a new license in another jurisdiction, the application form will likely require you to disclose your prior discipline. Remember not to conceal prior discipline, at the risk of committing credential fraud for which you could face license denial or revocation. Even if the application form does not require you to disclose your prior discipline, the state board officials evaluating your application may discover your prior discipline in the National Practitioner Data Bank or through other background searches. You may then face license denial.
If you face license denial in another state because of your prior discipline, you will likely have some form of appeal or contested case right. See, for example, the Iowa Board of Nursing rule providing that if the Board intends to deny a license application, it will send a preliminary notice of denial explaining your appeal rights. The Iowa Board of Nursing requires that the denied applicant submit an appeal explaining and documenting the basis for reversing the decision and granting the license. The Board of Nursing then holds a hearing on the application. Do not attempt an appeal and hearing presentation on your own, without the skilled representation of our attorneys. Appeals of license denials carry a heavy burden of showing your good character and competence for nursing. Let us help make your best case.
License Reinstatement as an Option
You may have another option to the above actions. State nursing practice acts typically grant state nursing boards the authority to reinstate a revoked or suspended license. See, for example, the North Carolina Nurse Practice Act disciplinary provision, granting the North Carolina Board of Nursing the authority to reinstate a suspended or revoked license. State nursing practice acts may provide for waiting periods and other terms and conditions for reinstatement. The North Carolina Nurse Practice Act, for instance, requires that the Board of Nursing find that “the reasons for revocation or restriction no longer exist” and that the nurse seeking license reinstatement “can reasonably be expected to safely and properly practice nursing.”
Do not attempt to gain license reinstatement on your own, without our strategic and effective representation. As in the case of a license denial, the applicant for reinstatement bears a heavy burden of showing fitness, competence, and safety. You must also show that you have met any other specified terms and conditions for reinstatement, and the lapse of any statutory waiting period or period during which the order of suspension or revocation is imposed. Let us help you make that showing. Don’t waste a chance at a license reinstatement that could also preserve your practice privileges in other states.
Premier Nursing License Defense Available
If you face state nursing board disciplinary charges, or if you have already suffered license discipline but are now responding to an investigation or seeking a license in another jurisdiction because of that discipline, retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team to help you address your licensing issues. Our highly qualified attorneys have helped hundreds of nurses and other healthcare professionals successfully address their disciplinary issues. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for the skilled representation you need.