People who go into nursing usually do so because they have a desire to help others. But nursing isn't just an activity you can do without a license—and getting a nursing license requires a serious time commitment and a lot of work. That's why your license is at the center of your career, and the determining factor in being able to make a living in your profession. As such, learning that a complaint has been filed against you with your state's licensing body is certain to bring out stress, particularly when it comes to the suggestion of reckless behavior that results in patient harm.
The Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team understands not just the importance of your license and your reputation, but also how confusing and complicated it can be to find yourself at the center of a disciplinary investigation or a misconduct proceeding. But you don't have to face it alone. Call us at 888.535.3686 or use our contact form to schedule a confidential consultation. Your nursing license is important to you; let us help you protect it!
What is Considered Reckless Behavior?
A nurse can find themselves facing several different disciplinary charges from their state nurse licensing board. Reckless behavior is one of those, and the conduct is regulated because of the high likelihood it can cause patient harm. At its core, reckless behavior is any kind of conduct that demonstrates a conscious disregard for the patient's safety and well-being, which are supposed to be a nurse's main concern.
It's important to note that reckless behavior and negligence aren't the same. In fact, reckless behavior goes beyond the scope of what negligence is—which involves unintentional mistakes or errors in judgment. Instead, reckless behavior implies a conscious disregard for risk, meaning that the nurse knowingly ignored the possibility of substantial and unjustifiable harm to the patient.
Plus, reckless behavior implies that the nurses' actions are intentional and that the conduct falls below the standard of care expected of a nurse in similar circumstances.
Examples of reckless behavior that can result in patient harm are administering medicine without checking for allergies or contraindications, failure to report a patient's deteriorating condition, leaving a patient unsupervised after administering medicine that might make them dizzy or incapable of being on their own, and falsifying patient records.
Though not all licensing boards might use the same terminology, the idea behind reckless behavior for nurses is standard across state legislatures. In Florida, Section 464.018 of the Nurse Practice Act refers to “culpable negligence,” which is when someone acts in a careless way that puts others at risk of harm, as grounds for disciplinary action.
Meanwhile, the Texas Nurse Practice Act in Section 301.452 establishes conducts that could be understood within the context of reckless behavior that causes a patient harm as grounds for disciplinary action, like “failure to care adequately for a patient or to conform to the minimum standards of acceptable nursing practice in a manner that, in the board's opinion, exposes a patient or other person unnecessarily to risk of harm.”
Though the definitions might be broad, and licensing boards can interpret many different behaviors within the confines of this conduct, these are two good examples of why you should not face disciplinary charges due to reckless behavior alone. The Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team can help you understand the charges and prepare the best strategy to fight for your license.
How to Defend Against Charges of Reckless Behavior
Defending against charges of reckless behavior can sometimes be complicated, particularly considering how different the definitions can be and how much the conducts that can be interpreted within this definition vary from state to state. A nurse's job is already stressful and tiresome without the added complication of having to defend your license and with it your livelihood. That's why the Lento Law Firm Professional Defense Team is ready to step in and help if you're facing allegations of reckless behavior that caused a patient harm.
The most important thing when it comes to defending against allegations of reckless behavior that caused a patient harm is to have a strategy that is specific to your case and considers the circumstances of all involved and the nature of the allegations. Here's a list of some of the ways to fight allegations of reckless behavior that caused a patient harm:
- Using testimony to prove that the alleged harm did not take place and that the patient is perfectly healthy and has not suffered any adverse effects from the supposed behavior.
- Showing that the complaints against you are inaccurate, unreliable, or that there's no evidence to support them.
- Showing that the behavior you're being accused of met all the applicable standards of nursing care, whether it is with expert testimony or relying on other professional sources.
- Presenting evidence of conflicts, retaliatory intent, or lack of knowledge on the part of the person who has reported your behavior or the witness to such alleged conduct.
- Proving that the behavior that is being investigated was not a deliberate violation of nursing practices but a reasonable misunderstanding or a mistake.
- Showing that the alleged reckless conduct was corrected before any report or complaint was filed, which establishes good faith intention to avoid violating nursing standards.
- Establishing that the alleged behavior was the result of outside factors such as medication side effects or a temporary medical condition that has now been addressed in a satisfactory manner that will prevent a recurrence, which ensures patient safety remains paramount.
The Disciplinary Process
Complaints
A disciplinary process for reckless behavior will always begin with a complaint—and in these types of disciplinary processes, who the complaint is coming from can often be important when it comes to establishing the facts and defending yourself against the allegations. Complaints coming from patients or family members have a lot of weight, but they also must be balanced out by the reality that patients and family members don't have the knowledge and training to understand what a nurse's job entails, and they may misconstrue a perfectly benign situation.
If the complaint comes from physicians, nurse supervisors, nurse colleagues, subordinate nursing assistants, or healthcare aides, it's likely that a licensing body might give it more weight. However, professionals can still misidentify actions or assume reckless intent where there was none.
No matter where the complaint comes from, the Lento Law Firm can step in as soon as there's a complaint against you and not just make sure you have all the information regarding your case, but that you understand all the possible outcomes and are prepared to defend yourself in the best way possible.
The Lento Law Firm Professional Defense Team can also help you prepare the best defense against the allegations made against you to the nursing board, making sure that we consider the specific circumstances of your case. Nursing is a very difficult job, and one that requires you to be able to always focus on your patients. We can be the ally you need in these trying times and make sure you can keep your attention on your patients, where it belongs, while we take care of you.
Notification
No process against you can begin until you are notified of the allegations you are facing. Just the notification can be scary, but it's important to understand that your license cannot be suspended or revoked without due process. You will have a chance to tell your side of the story, and the licensing board will also give you a chance to prove that the allegations against you are false—or that the harm caused was not just responsibility.
However, due process extends beyond the requirement for a notification. A good example of this can be found in the Washington State Nurse Practice Act, which incorporates the uniform procedural rules of the state's disciplinary act for all professions, not just nursing. Those rules refer to the state's Administrative Procedure Act for the required constitutional due process notice, hearing, presentation, and cross-examination of witnesses, and establish all the protections you have for these kinds of proceedings.
Likewise, most Nursing Practice Acts will establish the procedural rules any disciplinary process has to follow, like the Nurse Practice Act of North Carolina, which establishes which conducts will result in a disciplinary procedure as well as how that procedure will take place.
Receiving a notification that you're being investigated can be stressful, but the Lento Law Firm Professional Defense Team can help. You don't have to face the process alone. We can make sure your defense is the best it can be by tailoring it to your specific circumstances and focusing on the protective procedures of your state's Nursing Practice Act, nursing laws, and nursing rules and regulations. Your expertise is nursing, and you can focus on that while the Lento Law Firm focuses on you.
Hearing
Perhaps the most crucial part of any process taken by a licensing board is the hearing. Depending on the state, you could have the option of a conciliation conference, where you might be able to secure a voluntary resolution or the process might proceed directly to a hearing, where you will be required to not just explain your side of the story, but produce witnesses and proof of your claims.
A hearing is not the moment to start thinking about a defense. Instead, you need to arrive at a hearing with your defense already in place. The Lento Law Firm Professional Defense Team can help you not just prepare the best defense possible for your case but also be there for you to help secure an early resolution if that's what you want. Above all, the most important thing about this part of the process is being prepared and not winging it, particularly when your license and, by virtue of that, your livelihood is on the line.
Conciliation hearings are a great chance to present your side of the story, so even if the licensing board considers there's enough evidence to move on to a formal hearing, the prevailing narrative isn't that of the person claiming misconduct. In a formal hearing, meanwhile, we can solidify your side of the story with witnesses, as well as cross-examine any witnesses testifying against you.
The Lento Law Firm Professional Defense Team can help, both during a hearing and before it. Just as you take pride in being the best nurse you can be, we take pride in preparing cases and handling every step of the process, so you don't have to worry.
Appeals
No one wants to think about the possibility of an appeal before the process starts because an appeal means the hearing has gone against you. But it's important to consider that if that does happen, your state licensing board can suspend or revoke your license, as well as give you a substantial fine. These things can have a great impact on your personal and professional life—and even prevent you from making a living going forward.
However, the Lento Law Firm Professional Defense Team can counsel you on appeal avenues, which are available in all states and prepare the best possible case, taking the circumstances of your case and what happened during the hearing into account. Be it by identifying a new angle or pinpointing errors in the procedure that would warrant a reversal, the Lento Law Firm will fight for you until the end and do so by taking decisive action.
How the Lento Law Firm Can Help
The Lento Law Firm Professional License Defense Team has defended nurses accused of all types of misconduct, including reckless behavior that causes patient harm and can be on your side during this complicated time.
We understand how stressful it can be to learn that a complaint has been filed against you. But you don't have to try to fight against the possible damage to your reputation and the risk to your license and, therefore, your livelihood as you do your everyday work. The Lento Law Firm can work on giving you the best defense possible while you continue to do your job.
If you want to learn more about how the Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team can help you when you've been accused of reckless behavior, call us at 888.535.3686 or use our contact form to schedule a consultation. Your nursing license is important to you, so it's important to us. Let us help you protect it.
