Given their education, training, and skill, and the critical position they occupy relative to patient healthcare, nurses have appropriate authority. If you are not exercising authority in your role as a nurse, you are probably not providing the nursing services that you should and could. However, your abuse of that authority, whether involving patients or professional colleagues, could lead to disciplinary charges before your state nursing board. State nursing board disciplinary charges could, if not properly handled, cost your license to suspension or revocation. If you face disciplinary charges alleging that you abused your nursing authority over patients or colleagues, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team to defend those charges. Don't lose your license and all the benefits of your nursing practice. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our attorneys' skilled and experienced representation.
Nurse Exercise of Authority
As a licensed nurse, you manage multiple responsibilities involving patient care and relationships, medical supplies and equipment, medications, employer property, patient records, facility billing records, patient personal property, and other matters. Your responsibilities come with the natural and appropriate authority to execute them. For instance, you may, in the course of your regular nursing duties, have the authority to access and control medications, create and maintain patient and billing records, carry out patient nursing care, direct aides, secure patient personal property, and so on. If you abdicate your responsibilities, leaving them to others, patients can suffer harm and loss, and your employer and colleagues can suffer harm and loss, too. If, on the other hand, you abuse your authority, patients can likewise suffer harm and loss, as can your employer and colleagues. You hold a lot of authority and control over patients and professional colleagues, whether you recognize it or not.
Examples of Nurse Abuse of Authority
Nurses are generally circumspect when it comes to exercising their authority. But circumstances can give rise to allegations whether credible or not, by patients, their family members, colleagues, and employer representatives that a nurse abused authority. Nurse abuse of authority can take several forms, including:
- crossing boundary lines to enter into exploitative intimate or financial relationships with patients or colleagues;
- exceeding the scope of nursing practice to medicate or treat patients medically or induce unqualified subordinates to do so;
- minimizing, misrepresenting, or ignoring patient complaints and symptoms to influence or control treatment and outcomes;
- verbally advising patients to accept or reject medical treatment options and recommendations, countermanding physicians;
- favoring or disfavoring patients or colleagues in a discriminatory, harassing, or otherwise abusive fashion;
- altering or fabricating patient records or billing records, or failing or refusing to create and maintain records;
- bullying subordinate nurses or aides and otherwise sabotaging the work of colleagues; and
- failing or refusing to report suspected patient abuse or other wrongs by professional colleagues when charged to do so.
If you face any of these allegations or similar allegations that you abused your authority in the course of your nursing practice, promptly retain our attorneys to help you respond to those allegations before they lead to state nursing board disciplinary charges.
Employer Interests in Nurse Authority
Your nursing employer, whether a hospital, medical practice or clinic, nursing care facility, or home care agency, has a strong interest in your proper exercise of nurse authority. If you abuse your authority over a patient, your employer may face civil liability, facility license discipline, and loss of reputation. Your employer must monitor how you handle your nurse authority if your employer is to avoid civil liability and regulatory action against your employer's license. If you face employer allegations that you abused your authority, let us help you respond to those allegations before they affect your employment or reach state nursing board officials. Recognize that your employer is generally the first to become aware of and concerned over allegations of abuse of nursing authority.
State Board Interests in Nurse Abuse of Authority
Your state nursing board has the statutory duty under your state's Nursing Practice Act to protect patients and the public against substandard nursing. The Ohio Nurse Practice Act is an example. The Act's Section 4723.02 creates the Ohio Board of Nursing to license and regulate nurses within the state. The Ohio Board of Nursing declares its top priorities to be to “efficiently license the nursing workforce,” “remove unsafe practitioners from practice in a timely manner to protect Ohio patients,” and protect the public. When nurses abuse their authority over patients and subordinate professional colleagues, state nursing boards must investigate and take action against the nurse's license to carry out the board's patient and public protection duties. Respect your state nursing board's responsibility to address allegations that you abused your nursing authority. Let us help you defend the disciplinary charges.
Nursing Board Authority to Discipline
Your state nursing board will have the statutory and regulatory authority to discipline you based on allegations that you abused your nursing authority. State nursing practice acts routinely authorize state nursing boards to discipline licenses that they have issued. Once again, Ohio's Nurse Practice Act is an example. The Act's Section 4723.06 expressly authorizes the Ohio Board of Nursing to license and discipline the licenses of nurses. Don't doubt your state nursing board's similar authority. Get our skilled and experienced help defending your disciplinary charges alleging your abuse of nursing authority.
Disciplinary Grounds for Abuse of Nursing Authority
State nursing boards cannot discipline on a whim. They must have statutory or regulatory grounds on which to discipline. State nursing practice acts routinely authorize discipline on several grounds that could readily reach a nurse's abuse of authority. Pennsylvania's Nurse Practice Act is an example. The Act's Section 21.18 authorizes the license discipline of a nurse who:
- fails to respect a patient's right to freedom, dignity, and privacy;
- misappropriates property, money, materials, drugs, or equipment from a patient or employer;
- discriminates in nursing services based on race, sex, age, disability, or other protected characteristics;
- solicits or borrows money, materials, or property from a patient or a patient's family member;
- falsifies patient records or facility records;
- engages in sexual conduct or sexual impropriety in the course of a professional relationship; or
- knowingly aids, abets, or assists another in violating nursing standards.
Let us help you defend any similar charges under your state's Nursing Practice Act relating to your alleged abuse of nursing authority.
Defenses to Abuse of Authority Disciplinary Charges
Just because you face disciplinary charges from your state nursing board, alleging your abuse of authority over a patient or professional colleague, does not mean that you must suffer discipline. Your state nursing board's investigators may expect you to come forward with exonerating or mitigating evidence defending the charges. We can help you identify, gather, and present that defense evidence. Defenses to abuse of nursing authority charges may include the following:
- no abuse of authority actually occurred;
- the patient or other person alleging the abuse misidentified you when others were responsible for the abuse;
- others scapegoated and blamed you for abuse of authority that they instead committed;
- others retaliated against you by falsely alleging your abuse of authority;
- your actions were reasonably necessary under emergency circumstances to protect patients or others;
- you undertook your actions reasonably believing that they were consistent with appropriate physician or supervisor orders; and
- your actions, whether or not an abuse of authority, caused no harm and presented no risk of harm to any patient or other person.
Factors Influencing Abuse of Authority Allegations
You may wonder why you face abuse of authority allegations under your current circumstances when your actions were consistent with customary nursing standards and with the actions of other nurses in your facility. Several factors may influence abuse of authority allegations. Patient trust, confidence, and mental competence are primary among those factors. If you provide nursing services to mentally incompetent patients who suffer from delusion or other psychotic disruption, you may face false abuse of authority allegations. Patients facing especially painful or debilitating conditions requiring your invasive nursing care may likewise trigger abuse of authority allegations. Personality conflicts with supervisors or colleagues may likewise trigger abuse of authority accusations, as may poor nursing supervision, patient care overloads, and other poor facility management. Beware of factors influencing false or exaggerated allegations. If possible, let us help you address those allegations before they reach disciplinary officials. We may be able to communicate with the complainant or your employer to correct misunderstandings regarding your actions.
Responding to State Board Investigation
Retain us immediately if you learn that a complaint of your abuse of authority has reached state nursing board officials. We may be able to identify and communicate with the state nursing board investigator, providing the investigator with your exonerating evidence and mitigating information. If an investigator contacts you for information and interview, we can help you gather the information and supporting records, organize your presentation, and ensure that your information and answers are accurate, truthful, and complete. You don't need to face additional charges that you obstructed an investigation with incomplete or false information. We may also be able to advocate and negotiate with the investigator and other disciplinary officials for remedial measures, even if you did abuse nursing authority in some fashion so that you avoid a disciplinary record and sanctions affecting your employment and reputation.
Formal Hearing on Abuse of Authority Charges
If instead, your matter proceeds beyond investigation to formal charges that you abused your authority over patients or professional colleagues, then we can help you invoke your state nursing practice act's protective procedures for your best disciplinary outcome. State nursing practice acts routinely offer formal hearings and appeals with other protections to ensure a fair disciplinary outcome. The Pennsylvania Nurse Practice Act already once cited above is again an example. The Act's Section 21.4 incorporates the state's administrative procedure act, which guarantees a formal hearing in contested agency cases. We can invoke your right to a formal hearing under your state's similar administrative procedures. At that hearing, we can present your defense evidence while challenging the state nursing board's incriminating evidence, including cross-examining adverse witnesses.
Post-Hearing Relief from Abuse of Authority Findings
You may have already lost your formal hearing and may have already suffered a finding that you abused your nursing authority. If so, then your state administrative procedures likely provide for some form of appeal, either to a higher administrative official, your full state nursing board, or a state civil court. Our attorneys have the skill to identify and advocate appeal grounds, as your state's administrative rules require.
Disciplinary Sanctions for Abuse of Authority
State nursing practice acts routinely authorize a wide range of disciplinary sanctions. The Missouri Nurse Practice Act is an example. Its Section 335.066 authorizes discipline from reprimand, probation, license limitation, license conditions, and licensee evaluation all the way up to license suspension or revocation. But again, just because you face disciplinary charges does not mean that you must suffer license suspension or revocation. We may be able to make a good case for no discipline or for remedial measures that do not affect your ability to continue to practice nursing. Beware any discipline that leaves a record of misconduct that may affect your present or future employment. Do not retain unqualified local criminal defense counsel. Get our skilled and experienced professional license defense representation. We know the ins and outs including what alternative measures your state nursing board may accept to preserve your nursing job and career.
Premier License Defense Attorneys Available
If you face state nursing board disciplinary charges alleging that you abused your authority over patients or professional colleagues, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team for your best disciplinary outcome. We help hundreds of nurses and other healthcare professionals in state board disciplinary proceedings nationwide. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our skilled and experienced attorney representation.
