The Lento Law Firm Defends Kentucky LPNs
The Kentucky Board of Nursing warns its LPNs and other licensed professionals that it “protects the public by development and enforcement of state laws governing the safe practice of nursing, nursing education, and credentialing.” If you have received a Kentucky Board of Nursing notice that the Board is investigating your LPN license, then you need skilled and experienced administrative licensing hearing representation. Retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team to defend your Kentucky Board of Nursing misconduct charges for your best disciplinary outcome. Your LPN license and employment are worth protecting. Call 888.535.3686 or chat with us now.
Kentucky LPN Practice Rewards
The Kentucky Board of Nursing acknowledges that a licensed practical nurse is an “essential member” and “valuable asset” of the healthcare team, who plays “a vital role in administering medications, monitoring vital signs, and ensuring patient comfort and safety....” You know your worth to your hospital or other healthcare employer, your patients, and your community. You also know the value of your LPN practice to yourself and your family. Practicing nursing in Louisville, Lexington, Fayette, Bowling Green, Owensboro, Covington, Georgetown, Richmond, Florence, Elizabethtown, Nicholasville, Hopkinsville, Londonderry, Hudson, Bedford, Keene, Portsmouth, or another fine Kentucky city or town can be especially rewarding, with the state's sophisticated healthcare systems, beautiful scenery, temperate weather, and friendly population. Don't lose your LPN license to disciplinary charges. Get our defense help.
Nationwide Stakes to Kentucky LPN Discipline
Your Kentucky Board of Nursing disciplinary charges are not just a state of Kentucky matter. Your misconduct charges threaten your ability to practice nursing across the nation. Kentucky is among the many states that recognize LPN licenses by reciprocity or endorsement under the Nurse Licensure Compact. You may have gotten your Kentucky LPN license based on an LPN or LVN (licensed vocational nurse) license in another state. Or you may plan to take your Kentucky LPN license to another state to earn an LPN or LVN by endorsement or reciprocity in that state, saving you from having to retake the NCLEX and complete the required work experience all over again. Those savings are the advantages of the Nurse Licensure Compact. However, the disadvantage is that your Kentucky LPN discipline will go into the Nursys nationwide database for licensing boards and employers in other states to learn about your discipline. If you lose your LPN license in Kentucky for misconduct, you won't likely get an LPN in another state without addressing the circumstances that led to your discipline. Let us help defend your Kentucky LPN misconduct charges.
Kentucky LPN Licensure
You must have a Kentucky Board of Nursing LPN license to practice nursing in the state. Kentucky Statutes Section 314.051 states expressly that “[n]o person shall practice as a licensed practical nurse unless licensed under this chapter.” Kentucky Statutes Section 314.051 authorizes the Kentucky Board of Nursing to issue an LPN license to an individual completing the statutory requirements for licensure. Once you have your LPN license, you may use the LPN or licensed practical nurse title and may practice nursing within the license's scope. Without a current Kentucky Board of Nursing LPN license, you must not use the LPN title or designation and must not practice nursing within the LPN license's scope. Let us help you defend your Kentucky Board of Nursing LPN misconduct charges. You won't practice as an LPN in Kentucky without your license.
Kentucky LPN Qualifications
You doubtless worked hard to qualify for your Kentucky LPN license. Keep in mind all that you invested to get that license when considering how to defend Kentucky Board of Nursing LPN misconduct charges. Unless you are licensed by reciprocity, Kentucky Statutes Section 314.051 requires that you earn your LPN degree from an accredited nursing program, pass the nurse licensing exam prescribed by the Kentucky Board of Nursing, complete six months of work experience under a provisional license, and prove your good character, to qualify for an LPN license. If you are instead licensed by reciprocity, then you met similar requirements in another state. Disciplinary charges put all that investment at risk of loss. We can help you minimize that risk and obtain the best possible disciplinary outcome.
Kentucky LPN Disciplinary Authority
The Kentucky Board of Nursing has unquestionable authority to pursue misconduct charges against its licensed LPNs. Kentucky Statutes Section 314.051 expressly states that the Kentucky Board of Nursing may limit your LPN licenseunder the state's other nursing statutes and its own administrative regulations. Kentucky Statutes Section 314.091 authorizes the Board of Nursing to “reprimand, deny, limit, revoke, probate, or suspend any license or credential to practice nursing” the Board of Nursing issues. Kentucky Board of Nursing Regulation 162 details the procedures Board of Nursing disciplinary officials will follow to suspend, revoke, or limit your LPN license. Don't doubt the Board of Nursing's authority, commitment, and resources to pursue its investigation and charges against you. Instead, level the playing field by retaining our skilled and experienced attorneys for your defense.
Kentucky LPN Disciplinary Decisions
If you suffer Kentucky Board of Nursing discipline against your LPN license, you won't likely be able to conceal that discipline from those most important to your LPN practice. The Kentucky Board of Nursing warns that it enters its disciplinary findings in the Nursys E-Notify system. Kentucky Board of Nursing's final orders of discipline are public, in online databases, for anyone to see. You will also have a statutory duty to report your discipline to other licensing boards when applying for licenses or renewing a license, and you may have a duty to report discipline to your employer and prospective employers. Your employers, professional colleagues, patients, and even friends and family members may all find out that the Kentucky Board of Nursing disciplined your LPN license. You could lose your job, reputation, and professional relationships if you suffer discipline. Let us help you minimize that risk.
Kentucky LPN Disciplinary Sanctions
You've seen above that Kentucky Statutes Section 314.091 authorizes the Board of Nursing to “reprimand, deny, limit, revoke, probate, or suspend any license or credential to practice nursing” the Board of Nursing issues. Of course, license suspension or reprimand means losing your ability to practice nursing and likely losing your job and nursing income along with it. But even a reprimand, probation, or license limitation can affect your employment, income, and professional relationships. Let our highly skilled attorneys help mitigate any sanctions. We are often able to advocate effectively for remedial relief like additional education or training, or medical or mental health examination, treatment, or counseling, in lieu of harsh punitive sanctions.
Kentucky LPN License Reinstatement
Kentucky Statutes Section 314.051 expressly authorizes the Kentucky Board of Nursing to reinstate your LPN licenseafter its lapse by suspension, surrender, or other cause. Indeed, the Kentucky Board of Nursing's website touts that it “always provides a path to reinstatement for licensure.” Yet the same website warns that license reinstatement requires you to prove that you are safe to return to nursing, including by submitting a convincing application for reinstatement with all required documentation and making a satisfying showing at an interview or hearing. We can help you make your best case for reinstatement if you have already lost your LPN license.
Grounds for Kentucky LPN Discipline
The Kentucky Board of Nursing officials who pursue your discipline must state statutory or regulatory grounds for your discipline. Kentucky Statutes Section 314.091 lists the grounds for LPN discipline. The grounds on which the Kentucky Board of Nursing charges you are important to how we approach your effective defense. Consider the following common grounds and how our attorneys may be able to defend you.
Credential Fraud as Grounds for Kentucky LPN Discipline
Kentucky Statutes Section 314.091 lists being “guilty of fraud or deceit in procuring or attempting to procure a license, credential, or privilege to practice nursing” as grounds for your discipline. Examples of credential fraud include cheating on the NCLEX, misrepresenting your nursing education or work experience, or concealing a criminal conviction or other disqualifying condition on your LPN application or renewal form. We may be able to show in defense that you did not cheat, your applications were accurate, that any error or omission was innocent, and that any error or omission was immaterial to your good qualifications for your LPN licensure.
Criminal Conviction as Grounds for Kentucky LPN Discipline
Kentucky Statutes Section 314.091 lists felony conviction or misdemeanor conviction for any crime related to “drugs, alcohol, fraud, deceit, falsification of records, a breach of trust, physical harm or endangerment to others, or dishonesty” as grounds for your discipline. Examples include assault and battery and criminal fraud or embezzlement. We may be able to show in defense that you did not suffer the alleged conviction, the conviction was not for a disqualifying crime under the statute, or a court reversed your conviction.
Unfitness as Grounds for Kentucky LPN Discipline
Kentucky Statutes Section 314.091 lists acting negligently or willfully “in a manner inconsistent with the practice of nursing” or being “unfit or incompetent to practice nursing by reason of negligence or other causes” as grounds for your discipline. Examples include ignoring physician instructions, administering the wrong medications, using the wrong techniques to move, turn, bathe, or medicate patients, or having a mental or physical impairment that prevents safe nursing practice. We may be able to show in defense that you are neither incompetent nor impaired, that others committed the careless acts alleged against you, or that you were reasonably following instructions and orders of a supervisor in a safe harbor fashion.
Substance Abuse as Grounds for Kentucky LPN Discipline
Kentucky Statutes Section 314.091 lists alcohol or drug abuse as grounds for your discipline. We may be able to show in defense that you were not using or abusing alcohol or drugs, that you had a temporary prescription medication reaction, or that you have responsibly addressed your dependency or addiction issues without the likelihood of repeat and without patient endangerment. Beware Kentucky Board of Nursing offers of the state's alternative to discipline program. Diversion programs can impose such onerous drug and alcohol testing, counseling, and reporting requirements, for such an extended duration, as to create serious risks of discipline for non-compliance, even if you have no endangering addiction problem.
Kentucky LPN Disciplinary Procedures
Do not construe your Kentucky Board of Nursing LPN disciplinary charges as a guarantee that you will suffer discipline. The Board's disciplinary officials may just need your convincing response with supporting defense evidence. We can help you invoke your constitutional due process rights to present your exonerating and mitigating evidence. As indicated above, Kentucky Board of Nursing Regulation 162 details the procedures Board of Nursing disciplinary officials must follow if they intend to suspend or revoke your LPN license. Those procedures include your right to fair notice of the charges, disclosure of the evidence against you, and a formal hearing before an administrative agency official at which we can present your exonerating and mitigating evidence. You also have appeal rights we can invoke if you have already lost your formal hearing. We may also be able to obtain court review and reversal if you have already lost your appeal.
Premier Kentucky LPN Defense Services
The Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team is available across Kentucky, including in Louisville, Lexington, Fayette, Bowling Green, Owensboro, Covington, Georgetown, Richmond, Florence, Elizabethtown, Nicholasville, Hopkinsville, and other cities and towns, to defend your LPN license against misconduct charges. We have successfully helped hundreds of nurses and other professionals with license defense. Call 888.535.3686 or chat with us now.
