If you are a registered nurse or licensed practical nurse working in New Mexico for a nurse staffing agency, whether at a single location or as a “travel nurse,” you know first-hand how important your nursing license is to your career and your ability to make a living. With New Mexico continuing to have more nursing positions open than nurses available to staff them, you can also take some comfort in knowing that your license gives you access to a profession that will continue to offer many employment options for the foreseeable future.
That's why if you are notified that you are being investigated by the New Mexico Board of Nursing as the result of a misconduct complaint filed against you, you need the help of an experienced professional license defense attorney. The Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team understands the laws, rules, regulations, and procedures that apply in nurse disciplinary cases in New Mexico and is here to help you protect your rights, your license, and your career. Call us today at 888.535.3686 or schedule a confidential consultation with one of our experienced attorneys to learn more about how we can help.
Agency Nurses in New Mexico
There are a number of staffing agencies in New Mexico that provide nurses for a wide range of healthcare settings, including hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, and private companies. In some cases, the agency may provide the majority of the nurses for a particular facility on a long-term basis. In other situations, the agency may provide local nurses to fill short-term nursing needs. Then there are so-called “travel nursing” positions, where nurses from out of the area work at a facility according to a short-term multi-week contract.
Because many agency nursing jobs are short-term or temporary, a nurse who works through an agency is more likely to face chronic employment problems as a result of being disciplined by the New Mexico Board of Nursing (BON) than a nurse who is employed directly. A nurse who is required by the BON to be supervised in a particular way as a consequence of either a disciplinary proceeding or a so-called “monitored discipline” alternative-to-discipline program can find it very difficult, and sometimes impossible, to work with a nursing agency.
The New Mexico Board of Nursing
Nurses in New Mexico are licensed by the state's Board of Nursing. Licenses are issued both by examination and on a reciprocal basis for nurses already registered in one or more other states. Nurses are required to take continuing education courses to maintain their licenses and to submit proof of completion when they renew their licenses, showing that they've met the state's minimum requirements. In addition, nurses who are required to take designated continuing education courses as a result of a disciplinary proceeding must notify the BON before taking a designated course and get the course approved before it will satisfy their disciplinary requirements.
There are no separate registration requirements for nurses employed by or through a nursing agency, or for travel nurses.
Misconduct Registry in New Mexico for Nurses
The BON maintains a “License/Certification Verification Portal” that anyone can use to review the status of a nurse who is licensed by the board. If a nurse has been disciplined by the BON in a manner that is intended to be public, it will be listed when the nurse's name is searched. In addition to a description of the type of discipline imposed, the portal will provide the document or documents that describe why the nurse was disciplined and what the terms of the discipline were. Because all of this information is public, it is available to employers and anyone else who searches for it for decades after the discipline takes place.
Certification as an Agency Nurse in New Mexico
As noted above, New Mexico does not license or certify agency nurses any differently than it does other types of nurses. It does grant a number of different nursing licenses, including:
- Registered Nurse
- Licensed Practical Nurse
- Advanced Practice Registered Nurse – Certified Nurse Practitioner
- Advanced Practice Registered Nurse – Clinical Nurse Specialist
- Advanced Practice Registered Nurse – Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist
- Hemodialysis Technician
- Medication Aide
- Lactation Care Provider
Advanced practice registered nurses can further apply for authority to prescribe controlled substances.
Registered and licensed practical nurses can be licensed by the BON through an “initial examination.” The application requirements differ depending on whether the nurse was educated in a US nursing school or one located outside of the US. Nurses already licensed in another state that is part of the “Nurse Licensure Compact” (currently more than 40 states) can be licensed in New Mexico through “endorsement.”
All nurses applying for a license – whether through examination or through endorsement – must also register for and complete a criminal background check, including fingerprinting.
Once licensed by the state, a nurse is free to work in any position where their credentials meet or exceed the requirements for the job. This includes positions staffed by nursing agencies.
New Mexico Board of Nursing Disciplinary Investigations
Anyone can file a complaint about a nurse with the New Mexico Board of Nursing. The BON states that it investigates all complaints it receives, except in situations where the complaint alleges that a nurse has a chemical dependency and the nurse asks to be admitted to the BON's Diversion Program. In addition, the BON will not consider anonymous complaints.
Complaints are investigated by BON staff members. The BON may send the complaint to the nurse named in the complaint and request a response within ten business days of when it was received. If the nurse fails to respond within that time frame, the failure to respond is grounds for a separate disciplinary action.
In addition to asking the nurse for a written response to the complaint, the BON investigator will typically interview both the person who filed the complaint and the nurse named in the complaint. Co-workers and others with information about the matter reported in the complaint may also be interviewed, and information from patient and employment records may also be collected.
When the BON investigation is finished – a process that can take anywhere from three to six months on average – the investigator will prepare a report based on the information collected and will submit it to the BON for review. The BON will review the report and make a decision about how to proceed based on the information in the report. If the decision is to move forward with a disciplinary proceeding against the nurse, the BON will prepare a Notice of Contemplated Action that will be sent to the nurse for review. The nurse can choose to accept the BON's proposed action or can contest it.
The Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team can be particularly helpful during the investigative process. Our experienced attorneys understand the requirements for nursing discipline in New Mexico and can help you during BON investigator interviews to make sure you're prepared for the interview process, that the investigator's questions are clear, understandable, and appropriate, and that you have a chance to provide a thoughtful and complete response to questions. We can also help you prepare your written response to the complaint and conduct our own investigation of the matter raised in the complaint to attempt to uncover information that can help you defend against the allegations.
New Mexico Nurse Disciplinary Standards
Nurses are required to practice in a competent manner and be fit to practice. They can be disciplined for making fraudulent or deceitful statements when they apply for their license, if they are convicted of a felony, if they are addicted to alcohol or habit-forming drugs, or if they become mentally incompetent. A nurse in New Mexico can also be disciplined if the nurse “uses conversion therapy on a minor.”
Under New Mexico's Nursing Practice Act, nurses are expected to help “individuals, families or communities in maintaining or attaining optimal health, assessing and implementing a plan of care to accomplish defined goals,” as well as to evaluate “responses to care and treatment.” Nurses are generally required to use their knowledge and expertise to:
- Initiate and maintain comfort measures
- Promote and support “optimal human functions and responses”
- Provide patients with an environment that is conducive to the patient's well-being or, where appropriate, to support “a dignified death”
- Collaborate with other health care professionals on the patient's health care regimen
- Properly administer medication
- Make the necessary and appropriate records of patient care
- Delegate and supervise care as appropriate
- Be accountable for the safe and effective care of patients
Nurses can be disciplined by the BON for a number of specific types of misconduct. These include:
- Misappropriation of “money, drugs, or property”
- Misuse or diversion of prescription drugs
- Nursing misconduct, including having sexual contact with a patient, working while impaired, failing to maintain “professional boundaries,” or improperly delegating care to untrained or unlicensed individuals
- Physically or verbally abusing a patient
- Failing to make, keep, or maintain patient records
- Disclosing patient confidential information to those not authorized to receive it
- Refusing to cooperate with a BON investigation or information request
- Failing to report another nurse for violation of New Mexico's Nursing Practice Act
Defending Yourself Against New Mexico BON Nurse Disciplinary Investigations
You have a right to defend yourself when a misconduct investigation is launched based on a complaint filed against you. You can be represented by an attorney during the entire investigation process, as well as during any disciplinary proceedings that may result. It can be difficult and intimidating to find yourself the target of questions from a BON investigator. Most of us don't regularly face that kind of situation; even if the investigator seems friendly when asking questions, the purpose is to determine whether you've violated some aspect of the Nursing Practice Act and should be disciplined as a result.
It can be enormously helpful to retain an experienced professional license defense attorney who can prepare you for the experience of being interviewed by the BON investigator. Your attorney may also be present during the interview to make sure that the questions you're asked are clear, that you understand what you're being asked, and that you have a proper opportunity to provide a complete and clear response so that you don't end up receiving a BON Notice of Contemplated Action based on a misunderstanding. The Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team has the experience to help you in these kinds of stressful situations and to make sure that your rights are respected throughout the entire process.
Valuing Your New Mexico Nursing License/Registration
If your public record with the New Mexico BON shows that you've been disciplined for misconduct, you may find it more difficult to be employed as an agency or travel nurse. Your discipline may come with practice restrictions that can discourage employers from working with you.
Restrictions can particularly be a problem if you're participating in the New Mexico BON's “Diversion Program” for nurses with substance abuse issues. In some cases, once you are permitted by the program to return to work, you may be specifically prohibited from working as an agency nurse. Or, you may be required to have a designated pre-approved supervisor present while you are working – a requirement that can be very difficult for an agency nurse to satisfy.
This is why you should contact the Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team as soon as you are notified that a complaint has been filed against you. You will have the best chance of protecting your license and your future from disciplinary action that could make it difficult for you to work as an agency or travel nurse in the future.
Telling Your Side of the Story to New Mexico BON Investigators
A very natural reaction when you're accused of misconduct is to want to reach out and talk with the investigator to “tell them what really happened” and to “set the record straight” so it all can go away. Unfortunately, that's a strategy that rarely succeeds and can easily backfire.
The BON investigator has a job to do; they will continue to investigate a misconduct complaint whether you reach out to them or not. If you do so on your own, without advice from an experienced professional license defense attorney, you risk being misunderstood by the investigator, or saying something that prompts the investigator to dig even deeper than before. And while there may be nothing else to find, the stress of a prolonged investigation will take its toll.
That's where working with one of the experienced attorneys from the Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team can help. We will make sure that any information you want to share with the BON investigator is delivered in a way that is clear and to your advantage at a point in the investigation process where it can do the most good. This also applies when you're questioned by the investigator; we will make sure you only answer questions that are clear and understandable, and this will also help make sure your answers are understood by the investigator.
Allegations that Can Put Your Nursing License and Ability to Work as an Agency Nurse at Risk
As noted above, New Mexico's BON will discipline nurses – including, of course, agency nurses – for a wide range of misconduct. Some of these include:
- Taking advantage of your relationship with the patient to secure gifts, loans, or other material favors from the patient
- Abusing a patient, physically or sexually
- Defrauding your employer in any number of ways, including improperly recording work hours and taking supplies
- Stealing from a patient or facility resident
- Taking prescription drugs for yourself or for anyone other than the patient for whom they were prescribed
- Abandoning a patient
- Neglecting to care for a patient assigned to you
- Working while under the influence of alcohol or any substance – legal or illegal – that can adversely affect your ability to perform your professional duties
These are some common examples of nursing misconduct; there are of course other reasons the BON can pursue misconduct claims against a nurse.
What is the Disciplinary Process for New Mexico Agency Nurses?
Agency nurses in New Mexico are disciplined in the same way as all other licensed nurses in the state. The process includes a review of the initial complaint to make sure it relates to something that the BON can discipline for. For example, a complaint that relates to a fee dispute with the nurse's workplace will probably not result in an investigation of the nurse named in the complaint.
Assuming the complaint does relate to the type of conduct that the BON regulates, it will be assigned to a BON investigator. The complaint will also probably be sent to the nurse named in the complaint, and the nurse will have ten days to respond in writing to the BON about the allegations in the complaint. The BON investigator will conduct interviews, will gather information, and present findings to the BON.
The BON will then decide whether to send the nurse a Notice of Contemplated Action, which will include misconduct allegations against the nurse, a summary of the facts supporting the allegations, and a proposed resolution (or consequence or penalty). The nurse can accept the proposed action, reject it, or discuss the matter with the BON to attempt to resolve it on other terms.
If the matter can't be resolved through negotiation, it will proceed to a hearing before the BON that will follow the requirements of New Mexico's Uniform Licensing and Open Meetings Acts.
New Mexico BON Agency Nurse Hearing Procedures
Once a Notice of Contemplated Action is received, the nurse can request a hearing before the BON. The BON will then issue a notice of when the hearing date is; this will be no more than sixty days from the date the BON mails the notice of hearing to the nurse, though this date can be changed by agreement of the parties.
The nurse has the right to be represented by an attorney in connection with the hearing process. The nurse also has the right to:
- Receive the names and addresses of the BON's witnesses before the hearing
- Review and copy documents that the BON will or may use against them at the hearing
- Issue subpoenas for witnesses and documents before the date of the hearing
- Present evidence, including witnesses, in their own defense
- Cross-examine the BON's witnesses
Misconduct hearings use a more liberal form of evidentiary rules than do civil or criminal trials. In general, the BON has a lot of latitude when deciding what evidence to accept or reject. This can mean that evidence that would not normally be accepted by a court will be accepted and considered at a BON disciplinary hearing – something that can work for or against you, depending on what the evidence is and how it's being used.
After the hearing has finished, the BON will issue its decision. The decision may not come on the hearing date itself; the BON has 90 days to finalize and issue its decision. The decision must contain “findings of fact made by the board, conclusions of law reached by the board,” and the board's order based on those findings and conclusions.
Appeals of Misconduct Findings After a Hearing
If you disagree with the BON's hearing decision, you may file a “petition for review” with the district court. There are specific procedures for doing so, as well as deadlines that apply. The Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team can help you with these kinds of petitions, even if we were not involved in your hearing.
New Mexico BON Settlement Agreements
Many misconduct complaints resolve themselves with a settlement agreement between the nurse and the BON that avoids the stress and uncertainty of a hearing. Depending on the situation, a settlement agreement can be a very favorable way to resolve a misconduct claim. Whether to accept the terms of a proposed settlement, and what terms to propose in any settlement negotiation, are questions that an experienced license defense attorney from the Lento Law Firm can help you with. We've helped many licensed professionals across the US, including in New Mexico, resolve misconduct complaints and can use that experience on your behalf to negotiate with BON officials to attempt to resolve your misconduct complaint in as favorable a way as possible.
Why You Need an Agency Nurse Defense Attorney in New Mexico
The experienced attorneys at the Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team understand the rules, regulations, and procedures that apply when a nurse is accused of misconduct in New Mexico. We can make sure your rights are respected throughout the entire investigation, negotiation, and hearing process, and can take much of the stress of being investigated off of your shoulders.
In addition, we also understand the unique needs of agency and travel nurses, and our advice and work on your behalf will keep your particular needs in mind so that any settlement terms that may be proposed have as little impact on your ability to work as possible.
How an Agency Nurse Defense Attorney Helps in New Mexico
As your attorney, the Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team will represent you and defend your rights throughout the investigation process. We can conduct our own investigations to uncover evidence to help you in your defense. We'll negotiate with BON officials on your behalf with your particular needs in mind. When necessary, we will aggressively defend you at your hearing, and can file and argue an appeal of an adverse decision. Having an experienced attorney at your side through the entire disciplinary process can make all the difference when it comes to resolving the matter in a way that allows you to continue to work as an agency or travel nurse.
The Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team Can Help You Protect Your Nurse License in New Mexico
The Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team has helped nurses and other medical professionals maintain their professional licenses in New Mexico and states across the US for years. Our experienced attorneys understand the standards, laws, rules, and regulations that apply to nurses working in New Mexico. We'll aggressively and fairly defend your rights through any misconduct investigation, negotiation, and hearing that takes place as a result of a complaint that's been filed against you.
If you've received a notice that a misconduct complaint has been filed against you in New Mexico, call the Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team today at 888.535.3686 or use our contact form to schedule a confidential consultation with one of our experienced attorneys. Your career depends on your nursing license; let us help you keep it!
