If you've reached the point in your nursing disciplinary case where you are appearing at a hearing, it means that you've probably been unable to negotiate a favorable resolution of your case with the Board of Nursing (or the agency that is responsible for nursing discipline in your state). It also means that the outcome of your case is uncertain, and you may want to do everything you can to achieve a result that won't affect your ability to practice nursing – and make a living as a nurse. As part of your defense, you may be wondering how helpful it might be to present the hearing panel with evidence of your good character, whether by way of witness testimony or documents such as awards or employee review comments that reflect favorable things others have to say about you.
In many cases, it may be helpful to provide the hearing panel with this kind of information – but there could be instances where doing so might be counterproductive. When you work with one of the experienced attorneys from the Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team, we will use our experience and understanding of your case to help you decide the best way to defend you and your license at your nursing disciplinary hearing. Call us today at 888.535.3686 or use our contact form to schedule a confidential consultation so you can tell us about your case, and we can explain the ways we can help you protect your license.
What Kind of Evidence Can I Offer at My Nursing Disciplinary Hearing?
In most states, there are no hard and fast rules about the kinds of evidence that you can offer in your own defense at your nursing disciplinary hearing. That doesn't mean, however, that you can simply introduce any evidence that you think might be remotely helpful. Typically, it will be the hearing panel that will decide whether it is going to hear a particular witness or accept certain documents that you want to offer on your own behalf.
What's important is to focus first on the allegations that have been brought against you by your BON. What is the misconduct that you have been accused of committing? That is going to be the focus of the hearing panel at your hearing, and if you try to introduce evidence that is unrelated to those allegations, the panel is likely to refuse to accept it or, if they do accept it, to disregard it.
When you're working with an experienced attorney from the Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team, we will help you focus on exactly what it is you've been accused of doing and what the misconduct is that is the focus of the hearing. Then, we will work to build a defense based on the evidence that the BON has against you. In some cases, it could be helpful to introduce evidence of your good character at your hearing because it may help counter the BON's evidence. In other cases, good character evidence might be considered irrelevant and even unhelpful to your defense.
Where Does the Board of Nursing Get Its Evidence That It Will Use Against Me at My Hearing?
The typical nursing disciplinary case begins with a complaint. A patient, a family member of a patient, a co-worker, or anyone else may file a misconduct complaint with your state's BON about you. The BON will assign an investigator to look into the allegations in that complaint. This process can take some time, and you will be notified when it starts that you are under investigation.
The investigator will likely interview you, the person who filed the complaint (unless it's an anonymous complaint), your co-workers, and anyone else who might have information about the incident or incidents described in the complaint. The investigator may also secure records from your workplace when they might help provide information about the allegations against you (for example, patient records if you're accused of failing to properly record a patient's treatment or attendance records if you're accused of patient abandonment). You could even find that your personal records, such as bank statements, might be requested in cases where you've been accused of misconduct that could result in you receiving unusual sums of money (such as for selling drugs taken from the workplace, or accepting large gifts or loans from patients).
The scope of a nursing disciplinary investigation can be as broad as the BON's investigator decides it's going to be. And if the investigation uncovers misconduct that is different than what was in the initial complaint, that additional misconduct could be included in any charges that your BON decides to bring against you.
Along the way, the BON's investigator may hear good things about your character. They may interview a co-worker who tells them of instances when you've gone “above and beyond” in helping them or a patient, or they may speak with the family member of a patient who complements the good care you provided. Your employer may have copies of work-related awards or commendations that you've received in the course of your employment. And if you've received any kind of public award for any reason, the investigator may learn of that through an Internet search or through their interviews.
But just because the investigator has gathered information about your good character doesn't mean they will use it when they report their findings to the BON. The BON will decide whether to bring formal charges against you based on the report that the investigator provides. So, if you're facing disciplinary charges from your BON, it either means the “good character” information that the investigator provided didn't matter or that the investigator didn't bother to pass along that information to the BON.
Can I Provide the BON With Evidence of My Good Character Before My Hearing?
There is nothing to stop you from giving your BON evidence of your good character at any point during your disciplinary case. You can, of course, provide it to the BON's investigator during the investigation. But you may also be able to provide it in response to the final report that the investigator delivers to the BON if that report is shared with you. Another time you can provide character evidence is after the BON files its formal charges against you as part of your response to those charges. You can also raise it with the BON during any negotiations you have to resolve your case by way of an agreement before the hearing stage.
In other words, there may be a number of chances to provide the BON with evidence of your good character before you even get to your hearing. When you work with the Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team, we will use our experience defending many other nurses in many other cases, and our knowledge of your case, to decide whether and when to provide good character evidence to the BON.
One important thing to keep in mind – the BON is typically not the same as the panel that hears your nursing misconduct case. The fact that the BON has been told about your good character doesn't mean that the hearing panel will be aware of that information. One decision that your attorney can help you make, then, is whether to try to introduce evidence of your good character to the hearing panel as part of the hearing process in your case.
Can Good Character Evidence Ever Hurt My Nursing Discipline Case?
If you are going to introduce evidence of your good character at your nursing disciplinary hearing, it's very important to think it through from the point of view of the BON's attorney – the one who is bringing the disciplinary case against you. Think of that person as the prosecutor in a criminal case, one where you are the defendant. How might the BON's attorney try to use your good character evidence against you?
For example, say you bring a witness who can talk about one or more instances where you provided patient care that went above and beyond, care that shows what a good and careful nurse you are. They provide their testimony to the hearing panel with the help of your attorney, who will ask them questions that will prompt them to provide the good character evidence on your behalf.
The BON's attorney will then have a chance to cross-examine your good character witness. The attorney might ask them whether they've ever known you to make a mistake, lose your temper, be late for work or come to work hungover, or any of a number of other questions that are meant to discredit their testimony as well as make you look unfavorable.
The point is that whenever you have a witness who you bring to say good things about you, things that can help your case, it's important to test them ahead of time to find out if they could also be forced to say unhelpful things about you during their cross-examination.
Does That Mean I Should Never Present Evidence of My Good Character During My Nursing Disciplinary Hearing?
This is not to say that you should never bring good character evidence. What's important is to not rely on that evidence too heavily. Instead, you should focus on the allegations made against you – which is what the hearing panel should be doing. You should determine whether they have merit and, if they do, how you can best defend yourself against them.
Remember, the hearing panel's focus is on protecting the public from nurses whose actions may pose a danger to their patients. And good people still make mistakes. Good people can do things that put patients in danger. The fact that you are a good person – as supported by witnesses who have good things to say about your character or awards you've received in the past – may not matter if you've made mistakes that suggest you need training in a particular area, or that you have a substance abuse problem, or need better anger management skills.
This is where working with an experienced professional license defense attorney can be an enormous help. When you're facing allegations that you've committed nursing misconduct, it's easy to get so caught up with proving that this doesn't mean you're a bad person that you lose sight of the best way to defend yourself against the allegations. Working with an attorney who has years of experience defending other nurses in other cases will mean you can benefit from the work they've done in other cases. Your defense will benefit from having someone on your team who can look at the allegations against you with an understanding of how the hearing panel will decide them – then craft your defense based on that understanding, using your attorney's experience and skills.
The Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team Can Help
When you're facing a nursing misconduct hearing, you've reached a critical point in your career. It means you've not been able to negotiate a resolution of the nursing misconduct allegations brought against you, and it could also mean that your license and your ability to practice nursing is at stake. This is when you need the help of one of the experienced attorneys from the Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team.
Our attorneys have helped nurses and other healthcare professionals from all over the country defend themselves against career-threatening misconduct allegations. Our goal is always to protect your nursing license and your ability to practice (and make your living from) nursing. While the best time to contact us is the first day you learn that someone has accused you of nursing misconduct, we can help no matter what stage your case is at. Having one of our experienced attorneys on your side is the best way to protect your license from sanctions that could put you out of work and permanently damage your reputation.
At the Lento Law Firm, our professional license defense attorneys can help at every point of your nursing license disciplinary case. During the investigation, we will keep you informed about what is happening and will prepare you for – and be with you – when you are interviewed by the BON's investigator. Throughout the entire disciplinary process, we will make sure you meet all deadlines and will craft and submit timely responses to the BON's allegations against you.
We'll work extremely hard to negotiate a good result for your case so that you don't have to face the uncertainty of a hearing – but if your case does go to a hearing, we will fiercely defend you and will fight for the best result possible.
A nursing license disciplinary case is not one you want to defend against by yourself. Call the Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team today at 888.535.3686 or fill out our contact form to schedule a confidential consultation with one of our experienced attorneys. Tell us about the allegations against you, and let us tell you what we can do to protect your future.
