Is The Alternative To Discipline Program Your Best Option?
It's unnerving when a nurse finds out someone has filed a complaint against them with the Nevada State Board of Nursing, accusing them of substance abuse. Any type of Board-imposed discipline, no matter how brief, becomes part of the nurse's permanent professional record. The Board posts it on its Disciplinary Actions List and reports it to the National Practitioner Data Bank. The Lento Law Firm Team can help you keep your name off that list. Call the Lento Law Firm at 888.535.3686or submit your details online, and we will contact you.
Even if the charges are false or exaggerated, a nurse receiving notice of a complaint may want to settle the matter right away without first consulting a lawyer. The Board may take advantage of this eagerness to reach a quick settlement by suggesting enrollment in its Alternative to Discipline (ATD) program. The Board describes the program as “a closely monitored, non-disciplinary, non-public agreement” that won't strip you of your license. What they fail to mention is that the program's intensive requirements can deplete your savings, reduce precious time spent with friends and family, and consume years of your life.
Call The Lento Law Firm Offices Before You Contact The Board
A nurse who contacts the Nevada State Board of Nursing without first exploring all their possible legal options may unintentionally harm their best interests. For example, a nurse's eagerness to show their willingness to cooperate sometimes leads them to share unnecessary personal information that doesn't help their case.
Keep in mind that the Board already has evidence pointing to misconduct; you need to bring facts and evidence to their attention facts to counter or at least mitigate the allegations. The Lento Law Firm professional license-defense attorney can evaluate the complaint, ascertain whether the complainant's allegations are weak, and tell you if the State Board's case is seriously flawed.
The Lento Law Firm Offices' attorneys and legal staff have years of experience assisting nurses accused of substance abuse. The Lento Law Firm Team acts as intermediaries between the nurse and the Board, presenting your case in its best light and working hard to settle the matter with minimal disruption to your life and career.
Call the Lento Law Firm at 888.535.3686today for a consultation about how we will defend you against substance abuse complaints in Nevada. You can also submit your case details online, and a member of our team will reach out as soon as possible.
Nevada's Alternative To Discipline Program: A Smart Choice, Or A Trap?
Medical associations first began developing Alternatives to Discipline programs in the 1970s with the best of intentions. The goal was to reduce patient harm from drug-abusing medical professionals by encouraging them to voluntarily self-report to their licensing boards and enroll in a board-approved rehab program. Provided they completed all the required classes and attended the required number of NA or AA meetings, they would be allowed to keep their licenses.
The Nevada State Board of Nursing's Alternative to Discipline Program was created with this idea in mind. The Board promotes the program as a means of avoiding license suspension, offering nurses an opportunity to return to the nursing practice once they have fulfilled all the requirements. But the reality has proven more complicated. While ATD programs have helped some nurses, many have found themselves trapped in a maze of requirements that essentially took over their lives.
Downsides To Nevada's Alternative To Discipline Programs
The State Board's Alternative to Discipline Program imposes a lengthy list of requirements on those who enroll:
- Nurses must surrender their license or nursing certificate before they can enroll in the program. This generally means they must give up their current jobs, which strips them of crucial job benefits such as healthcare coverage and family leave with paid time off.
- Nurses may not anticipate the ensuing loss of income after they surrender their licenses. The absence of a license will restrict their job assignments to low-paying positions.
- Nurses must bear all the costs associated with fulfilling ADP requirements. This can include lab charges for blood and urine tests, therapist fees, and evaluation fees, all of which can add up to thousands of dollars. Having lost their health-care benefits when they gave up their jobs, nurses have no choice but to cover these costs themselves.
- A nurse will be allowed to work under the supervision of a licensed medical professional but forbidden to dispense patient medications. This will severely limit their job duties.
- Nurses in the program find themselves under constant supervisor scrutiny.
- The literature promoting ATD programs rarely mentions the burden of out-of-pocket costs, which often end up forcing nurses out of the program. Academics studying ADP programs nationwide have noted the resulting disparities in success between doctors and nurses. As one study of ATP programs wrote, “Unlike physicians with addiction who are more likely to have the means to enroll in such programs, nurses are paid far less. If their state or employer requires that they stop working during treatment, they may lose any health coverage as well.”
- On top of that, the State Board of Nursing may charge a monthly fee to cover the costs of monitoring the nurse's compliance with the program.
- For nurses who take on outside work to compensate for the lost income, participation in the program reduces the number of hours available to earn a living. The Nevada ATD requires 80 hours of didactic work, 80 hours of group counseling, and 20 hours of individual counseling–all together totaling at least 180 hours.
- In addition to treatment, the nurse must attend sobriety meetings once a day for 90 days in a row, including weekends and holidays. This requirement can be especially difficult for nurses with ongoing family obligations, such as caring for children or elderly parents. At the very least, it cuts down on the number of hours available to work in gainful employment. Unexpected, last-minute family emergencies, such as a sick child, can prevent a nurse from making it to that day's sobriety group meeting. This means they will have to start all over-tallying their daily meeting attendance, beginning with Day 1.
- After completing all the treatment requirements, a nurse must spend the next five years being closely monitored at work.
- Even after successfully completing the program, nurses who move out of town may find their future nursing opportunities limited. While the Board emphasizes that substance abuse treatment is non-public, some state nursing boards treat the successful completion of a treatment program as a conviction for purposes of licensure–so a move to a different state could cut short your nursing career. This happened to one nurse who'd taken control of her substance abuse problem years earlier. She was compelled to enter the program after the nursing board in her former home state reported her past history to the board in her new state.
As these examples show, enrolling in an Alternative to Discipline program can have unintended consequences that leave nurses in a much worse situation than if they'd worked with an experienced professional license-defense lawyer, who could also represent them before the Board. That's why so many Nevada nurses contact the Lento Law Firmbefore contacting the Board.
The Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team
The Lento Law Firm Team employs a talented group of legal professionals, every one of whom is driven to pursue justice for those whose licenses are at risk. Team members understand how nurses without serious substance abuse problems may be accused of substance abuse and become the target of a State Board of Nursing investigation.
While the Lento Law Firm lawyers come from a broad range of backgrounds, all of them share the firm founder's single-minded dedication to providing zealous advocacy for their clients. Whether this involves tactful negotiations with the Nevada Nursing Board's lawyer or presenting hard-hitting arguments before a disciplinary panel, the Lento Law Firm lawyers all know how to fight forcefully on behalf of their clients and don't give up until they're sure they've arrived at the best possible outcome for you.
Mistakes Due To Overwork Are Sometimes Misinterpreted As Evidence Of Substance Abuse
Sometimes, nurses who have no substance abuse problems but are overworked may find they've been reported to the State Board by a misguided supervisor who interpreted mistakes such as missed medications or sloppy medication documentation as evidence of substance abuse rather than recognizing them as signs that a nurse tasked with a heavy patient load and working in a short-staffed facility needs additional staff support. Rather than take the time to ask questions, supervisors and department heads can jump to the wrong conclusion, assume the problem is drug-related, and put a nurse's license in jeopardy by filing a substance abuse report with the Nevada State Board of Nursing.
Accidental Violations of Drug-Handling Protocols Can Lead to a Board Complaint
The nationwide opioid epidemic has led to drastic changes in drug handling protocols, including stringent requirements for the management of controlled substances. Nurses with no history of substance abuse who accidentally violate the protocols have reported being compelled to enter Alternative Discipline programs to keep their licenses. As one nurse posted to an online nursing group:
When I began nursing, we could walk to the hospital pharmacy and say, “Dude, I am so allergy/sinus congested & have a headache". The pharmacist would reach into the bin and throw you a Motrin and Sudafed. No biggie. Now it's not allowed.
Another nurse wrote about being forced to go through the ATD program in order to keep her license after someone witnessed her taking a medication without a prescription. Once enrolled, she found herself among nurses who “had DUIs or were caught stealing drugs from work or getting high/drunk on the job–things I have never ever even thought about doing.”
The Lento Law Firm Can Assist You In Handling A Complaint
No nurse accused of substance abuse can advocate for themselves as effectively as a professional license-defense attorney with years of experience representing nurses facing disciplinary charges. The Lento Law Firm Team acts as an intermediary between a nurse and the Board, presenting your case in its best light and working hard to settle the matter with minimal disruption to your life and career. Call the Lento Law Firm at 888.535.3686or submit your details online, and we will contact you.
The Alternative to Discipline Programs' Inflexibility Overwhelms Many Nurses Who Enroll
The time-consuming nature of ATD program requirements can virtually take over a nurse's life. In combination with the other associated burdens, such as loss of income, the time commitment often leads nurses to drop out of the program and leave the profession.
Academic studies of ADP programs have noted that the primary purpose of the rules inflexibility is to cut down on the time and expense required to operate the programs. This accounts for nurses' complaints about getting lumped in together with nurses with far more serious substance abuse problems than theirs. One wrote, “The Board imposes one-size-fits-all requirements on all participants, regardless of their situation. There is no individual treatment. Our licenses are held hostage.”
Other nurses have said that the programs' strict, non-negotiable requirements run counter to their supposed goal. Far from feeling they're in a supportive environment, they feel penalized for voluntarily seeking assistance. One nurse posted, “In the end, I had to walk away from it because I felt like their ask was far outweighing what was truly needed for me.”
The Lento Law Firm Vigorously Defends Nevada Nurses Charged With Alcohol Or Substance Abuse
The Lento Law Firm specializes in professional license defense.
The Lento Law Firm's lawyers are all trained to fight forcefully on behalf of their clients and don't give up until they're sure they've arrived at the best possible outcome for you. Early action will not only ease your anxiety but will also put the Board on notice that you have a trained, experienced legal professional advocating on your behalf. Call the Lento Law Firm at 888.535.3686or submit your details online, and we will contact you.
State Board Confidentiality Does Not Ensure Confidentiality From Others
The State Board of Nursing takes steps to ensure participant privacy and maintains confidentiality toward those enrolled in the Alternative to Discipline Program. Notwithstanding this, the sheer amount of time required to comply with Program requirements makes it tough to keep it secret from one's peers and acquaintances. So don't fall into the trap of being persuaded to enter an Alternative to Discipline program simply because you want to solve the problem quickly. Call the Lento Law Firm at 888.535.3686today for a consultation about how we will defend you against substance abuse complaints in Nevada. You can also submit your case details online, and a member of our team will reach out as soon as possible.
