Nurses face serious license disciplinary risks when they fail a drug test. State nursing board officials take nurse substance abuse and dependency issues seriously. If you have failed a drug test and now face employer and state nursing board investigation, call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now to retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team for your best possible licensing outcome. Get the help you need to protect your nursing license and career.
Why Do Nurses Get Drug Tested?
Nurses get drug tested for two reasons: (1) a substantial number and percentage of nurses have substance abuse issues, and (2) nurse substance abuse can impair nursing practice and endanger patients.
You are likely already aware of the high prevalence of drug abuse among nurses. A Journal of Nursing Regulation study indicates that about six percent of nurses, or one in every sixteen nurses, abuse illicit drugs. A higher percentage of nurses, about ten percent or one in every ten nurses, abuse prescription medications. Higher percentages of nurses reflect substance use disorders. Nurses in home health and nursing home practice tend to have higher substance abuse rates than other nurses. Nurse substance abuse is a large and dynamic concern.
You may also have some idea of how impaired nursing practice can adversely affect patients and the hospitals and other care facilities in which nurses provide patient service. A drugged nurse is an inattentive and unstable nurse. A nurse with a serious substance abuse issue can be mentally and physically unwell, undependable, distracted, desperate, secretive, and even dishonest. At least, that's the way that your patients, their family members, your professional colleagues, your employer, and your state nursing board may regard drug-impaired nurses. Beware of concerns, complaints, and disciplinary charges alleging substance abuse. Let us help you respond to preserve and protect your nursing license.
Why Is My Employer Interested in My Drug Test?
Your employer may have several significant interests in whether you have a drug abuse problem and what are the results of your drug test. A first interest has to do with protecting the patients in your employer's hospital, clinic, nursing home, medical practice, or home health service. Your employer's business and reputation depend on competent and qualified nursing care. If patients get hurt by drug-impaired nurses, your employer may face civil liability, regulatory action, and public condemnation.
Your employer also has serious management interests relative to drug-impaired employees. When a nurse or other healthcare worker has a drug problem, other workers in the same facility often soon learn of that problem, whether from the impaired worker's demeanor while at work or from the impaired worker's frequent absences, other aberrational behavior, or admissions. An impaired worker can expose, embarrass, and burden other workers in the same facility. Your employer has a management problem if you have a drug problem.
Indeed, your employer's interests in preventing drug-impaired nursing practice in your employer's facility are so significant that your employer may well report your positive drug test to state nursing board officials. Your employer may even have a regulatory duty to do so in certain circumstances. Get our help if you have a positive drug test that is now exposing you to employer concerns. You need our skilled license defense representation.
Why Is My State Board Interested in My Drug Test?
Your state nursing board has one overriding interest in your positive drug test: patient and public protection. State legislatures form state nursing boards for the express reason of protecting the public against unsafe and incompetent nursing. For example, the mission statement of the Washington State Board of Nursing: “Our mission is to safeguard public health by improving nursing regulation and oversight.” Your state nursing board is the state's policeman over nursing practices. Your state nursing board has one primary role, and that is to discover and discipline wayward nurses before they hurt anyone.
Can My State Board Punish Me for My Drug Test?
Yes, potentially, although license discipline for a positive drug test is in no sense a foregone conclusion. We may well be able to help you defend and defeat a state nursing board disciplinary charge relating to your positive drug test, depending on various circumstances. Read this information carefully, but promptly retain us for our specific advice and representation addressed to your own situation. If your state nursing board has already served notice of your disciplinary charge, do not take that notice to mean that you are responsible for a violation and will lose your nursing license. We may be able to prove that your positive drug test did not violate nursing rules and standards or may be able to satisfy your state nursing board that remedial measures you are already taking or are willing and able to take will meet the board's patient protection concerns.
What Is My State Board's Disciplinary Authority?
State legislatures enact nursing practice acts to authorize state nursing boards to license and discipline nurses. For example, the Ohio Nurse Practice Act Section 4723.06 authorizes the Ohio Board of Nursing to license and regulate nurses for practice in the state. Your state nursing board's authority to require that you maintain a nursing license and to discipline your license thus comes from your state legislature. Your state legislature has general police power to regulate public health and safety, including healthcare professions and other professions. Don't doubt or question your state nursing board's authority. Instead, let us help you address your state nursing board's concerns relative to your positive drug test.
Will My State Board Learn of My Positive Drug Test?
Maybe. It depends on the circumstances of your drug test. If your positive drug test occurred outside of your nursing practice, away from the nursing facility, without your nursing employer's involvement, then your state nursing board may have no particular means of discovering it. Your state nursing board may not even have any particular reason to be concerned about it, especially if it is related to a one-time event like a public intoxication civil infraction at an outdoor concert or party. People can get drunk on rare occasions under relatively innocent and harmless circumstances. If that's the profile of your positive drug test, then your state board may not discover it or need to learn about it.
If, on the other hand, your positive drug test occurred under a professional assistance program, especially a program to which your state nursing board referred you and for which you signed a disciplinary diversion agreement, then yes, your state nursing board is very likely to learn about it and be very concerned about it. In that case, you definitely need our skilled and experienced defense services.
Those are the two ends of the discovery spectrum. In between is a large gray area. If your positive drug test occurred in a drunk driving arrest, then your state nursing board may be interested in the criminal charge's outcome. Drunk driving can result in professional license discipline. If, instead, your positive drug test was part of your employer's program, then your state nursing board may likewise be interested because of the test's direct relationship to your nursing practice. Let us help you deal with disclosure issues.
Should I Accept a Drug Diversion Program Offer?
Probably not, but let us advise you under your particular circumstances. State nursing practice acts often authorize state nursing boards to establish nurse professional assistance programs. An assistance program intends to help a nurse with a substance issue avoid unsafe or unfit practices and disciplinary sanctions. See, for example, the Illinois Nurse Practice Act authorizing the Illinois Board of Nursing to establish such an assistance program. The Illinois Board of Nursing has done so by supporting nurse participation in the broader Illinois Professionals Health Program.
In theory, these programs make sense. In practice, they can impose burdens that are so substantial, expensive, unhelpful, tricky, and long in duration that they can be a bad regulatory risk for some participants. You may also have to relinquish your nursing license to participate and may not be able to get your license back until you complete a lengthy program. Let us help you evaluate your options. Do not sign your state nursing board's offer of a participation agreement until we review the agreement and advise you about it.
Can I Challenge State Board Drug Abuse Discipline?
Yes, in all likelihood. State nursing practice acts must generally provide nurses accused of license misconduct with fair notice and a fair hearing on the charges. They must do so to satisfy your constitutional due process rights to your nursing license and practice. For example, the Ohio Nurse Practice Act Section 4723.28 assures nurses facing license discipline that the Ohio Board of Nursing will comply with the state's Administrative Procedure Act for hearings and other protections. Section 4723.28 cites Administrative Procedure Act Section 119.09 on adjudication hearings in contested cases. If your state nursing board charges you with discipline related to your positive drug test, we can invoke equivalent procedures under your state's nursing laws and administrative procedures to present your best defense. If you have already lost your hearing, we can pursue your appeal and seek court review.
How Do I Defend Drug Test Disciplinary Charges?
With our skilled and experienced representation. As the above discussion may have already made clear, your disciplinary charges are only accusations, not proof that you violated nursing rules and standards and deserve or require license suspension or revocation. We may be able to raise any one or more of the following defenses on your behalf, depending on your particular circumstances:
- your positive drug test was erroneous due to improper methods, improper device calibration, or other reasons;
- your positive drug test was a one-off incident not indicating any substance abuse, dependency, or addiction;
- your positive drug test occurred outside of the context of nursing practice;
- you were not impaired while providing nursing care to any patient or while on nursing duties, and you have never been impaired while nursing;
- no reliable witness observed any impairment, even if your positive drug test occurred during nursing practice, and any impairment did not affect your nursing care;
- you have already completed substance abuse evaluation and complied with all treatment, counseling, and education recommendations, removing any impairment risk or
- you are ready, willing, and able to privately complete substance abuse evaluation, treatment, counseling, and education to eliminate impairment risks.
What Discipline May I Suffer for My Positive Test?
State nursing practice acts generally give state nursing boards broad discretion to impose sanctions anywhere from a warning or reprimand through probation with limitations and conditions up to license suspension or revocation. While that discretion may seem concerning to you, our attorneys can use that discretion to advocate with disciplinary officials that they should accept your offered remedial measures in lieu of punitive sanctions. Your goal should be to preserve your nursing license unencumbered by any discipline so that you retain your employment and reputation.
What Are My Stakes in a Disciplinary Proceeding?
High, substantial, real. Do not underestimate your stakes. If you suffer discipline, you could lose your nursing license, employment, and career, as well as your professional reputation, relationships, financial support, and security. These losses could adversely affect your financial, family, and household obligations and relationships. Let us help you avoid your worst risks and achieve your best disciplinary outcome.
Premier License Defense Attorneys Available
If you have failed a drug test and now face the prospect of nursing license disciplinary charges, your best move is to retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team for the representation you need for your best licensing outcome. We help hundreds of nurses and other professionals nationwide in all kinds of state licensing board matters. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our skilled and experienced attorney representation.
