Nurse Elder Abuse Allegations Illustrate License Discipline Challenges
Respect for our elders remains a prime value in modern America. As the large Baby Boomer generation enters senior status, its younger generations must care for that aging population with the same respect, dignity, and compassion that generation cared for its elders.
Disciplinary officials allege that this lesson was lost on one Hollywood, Florida man who stands accused of elder abuse in a Pembroke Pines psychiatric hospital where he was employed.
Here at the LLF National Law Firm Professional License Defense Team, we take elder abuse very seriously — but also understand that elder Americans themselves have unique challenges that can affect the work environment, complicating a devoted nurse’s day-to-day care tasks, and threatening the nurse’s reputation, work relationships, and professional license with deluded or mistaken misconduct allegations.
If you need help with a professional license problem, call us at 888.535.3686 or contact us online.
A Registered Nurse Accused of Elder Abuse
The involved registered nurse had been employed by South Florida State Hospital for three years, when facing the charge of abusing a disabled adult. Surveillance footage appeared to show the nurse and elder patient engaged in a verbal argument, although the video footage is without audio.
The video appears to show the nurse shoving the elderly patient, although whether the nurse’s action was in self-defense or had other triggering cause is unclear. In any case, the interaction resulted in the elder patient on the floor. Officials further allege that the nurse refused to check on or help the patient he had allegedly pushed.
Impulsive Actions and Their Repercussions
The involved nurse’s action may have been impulsive and even abusive, amounting to professional misconduct warranting severe license discipline. Or the nurse may have had a valid defense to any such charges, whether for self-defense or otherwise, or may be able to show mitigating circumstances if, for instance, the involved patient had used a slur or threat, of which the video shows no evidence.
In any case, the Florida state surgeon general issued an emergency suspension order against the involved nurse’s Florida Board of Nursing license. The license suspension did not revoke the license but certainly threatens its revocation. Florida’s state Nursing Practice Act and Board of Nursing rules prohibit patient abuse.
What license discipline consequences will the nurse ultimately face? It’s hard to predict without further information. But a real risk exists of license revocation.
Losing a Professional License Could Mean the Loss of Your Career
If you face serious license discipline charges of this kind, don’t underestimate your collateral risks. You could lose not only your license but also your job and career as an RN. Licensed professionals accused of wrongdoing won’t generally immediately or automatically be stripped of their license and suffer employment termination. Instead, you have a right to due process. Our highly qualified Professional License Defense Team can strategically invoke your procedural rights and protections for your best disciplinary outcome.
Should you find yourself in this precarious scenario, call the LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team immediately at 888.535.3686 or contact us online.