Nursing License Issues: Continuing Education Fraud

Nurses have a tremendous amount at stake in their nursing education, licensure, and careers. You know the hard work and diligent study you invested to get where you are today in your nursing career. You also know the necessity of continuing education and must prove your contact hours to your state nursing board officials. If those officials have notified you of suspected continuing education fraud, you must appreciate your substantial license discipline risk. You could lose everything you have worked for. Retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team for your best possible nursing license disciplinary outcome relating to alleged continuing education fraud. Our skilled and strategic attorneys are available nationwide to defend your nursing license against continuing education fraud and other disciplinary charges. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our highly skilled and experienced attorneys' strategic representation.

The Role of Continuing Education

Your state nursing board has adopted continuing education rules because it believes in the role and value of continuing education. Your state nursing board has the statutory duty to protect patients and the public against substandard nursing care. Continuing education is one of the primary ways in which your state nursing board carries out that patient- and public-protection role. Continuing education courses and contact hours give the nursing board and its approved education providers the opportunity to freshen and update your nursing skills. If you've already had continuing education, then you know the value of those instructional hours. You likely received reminders of practices you may have forgotten or overlooked from your nursing education, perhaps long ago. You may also have learned new or different nursing practices of which you were unaware, broadening, deepening, and improving your nursing knowledge and skills. Respect your state nursing board's interest in ensuring appropriate continuing education for its licensed nurses. Let us help you address your continuing education fraud issues in other ways beyond challenging the role and value of continuing education.

The Burden of Continuing Education

At the same time, we acknowledge that continuing education can distract and burden a competent nurse from fulfilling other important professional and personal duties. Your nursing practice and other responsibilities likely already fill most or all of your available time and require most or all of your available energy. Yet continuing education requires you to devote hours, days, and perhaps weeks of time to online, classroom, or clinical instruction, depending on your state's specific continuing education requirements. Continuing education can cost you not only time but also money in the form of forgone earnings and incurred course fees and expenses. In the worst cases, continuing education courses and contact hours can repeat what a nurse already knows well or even provide minimal or substandard offerings where the nurse knows better.

The Temptation to Continuing Education Fraud

Under these and other burdens, the temptation can certainly exist for nurses to skip instructional hours and even fudge, falsify, or exaggerate missed hours, sometimes with excuses that the nurse gained the equivalent in on-the-job experience or other research, reading, or training. Those practices of cutting corners on completion and documentation are a problem for nurses not only in continuing education but in nursing school clinical programs, too, where supervisors must be on the lookout for practices like nursing students substituting or covering for one another without showing accurate documentation of those clinical hours. We understand. But beware of the temptation, and beware even more of the temptation to conceal deceptive practices with misrepresentations and omissions or attempt to justify them with explanations.

The Necessity of Continuing Education

No matter what you think of continuing education, your state nursing board has the statutory and regulatory authority to require it. State legislatures nationwide approve state-by-state nursing practice acts, routinely including continuing education requirements for license renewal or the authority of the state nursing board to require it at the board's discretion. The National Library of Medicine summarizes the states' varying continuing education requirements in convenient table form. That information shows that state nursing boards generally require 10, 15, 20, 24, 25, or even up to 36 contact hours of continuing education every two years. The specific number of hours may vary within a state depending on the nursing license and other factors. Only a few states, including Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wisconsin, do not require continuing education. If your state nursing board purports to require continuing education, it very likely has the statutory and regulatory authority to do so. Let us help you find a better way to defend your continuing education fraud charges than to challenge board authority.

The Definition of Continuing Education Fraud

You likely already have a sense of what constitutes continuing education fraud from the above description. But let's define it more precisely. Continuing education fraud generally involves a material false representation or misleading omission about continuing education courses, attendance, or hours, made knowingly or recklessly to induce state nursing board officials to rely on it to approve a nursing license renewal without the nurse having completed the required hours. Notice the several fraud elements, including (1) a material assertion or omission, (2) that is false or misleading, (3) about which the nurse knows, (4) makes deliberately to (5) induce board reliance, (6) to the board's detriment in accepting continuing education hours that (7) the nurse did not actually complete.

Defenses to Continuing Education Fraud

The foregoing lengthy and precise definition is necessary to indicate the several potential defenses that our attorneys may be able to raise to your nursing license disciplinary charges, depending on your case's facts and circumstances. For instance, we may be able to show that you did not make any material assertion on a renewal form or otherwise having to do with your continuing education hours. Alternatively, you may have represented your continuing education hours to the board but have done so accurately on documentation and other evidence that our attorneys may identify, gather, and present.

We may alternatively be able to show, in defense to continuing education fraud charges, that although you made a false representation of continuing education hours, you were not aware of that falsity. You may have honestly and reasonably believed that your hours reflected on your license renewal form or in your response to a continuing education audit were accurate. You may simply have made a mistake or inadvertent error or failed to recall accurately what you earnestly believed was true. Other potential defenses would involve your not having made any representation to the board itself, perhaps relying instead on others to do so, or board officials having known of the error in hours and not having actually relied on it in any way, instead approving your license renewal on other valid grounds. These are just a few of the many defenses our attorneys may be able to raise to relieve you from license discipline over continuing education fraud charges.

Examples of Continuing Education Fraud

You likely already have a sense of what constitutes continuing education fraud from the above descriptions. But consider the following examples to be sure that you understand more of the potential scenarios that your state nursing board may suspect or allege when accusing you of continuing education fraud:

  • the nurse has an impostor complete the online courses or sit in on the in-person continuing education classes, with the impostor later admitting the practice or getting caught by the instructor or other students in the class;
  • the nurse pretends to complete an online course without actually watching the videos that the nurse's checkoffs and other entries and actions falsely represent, with the electronic system detecting the misrepresentations from cameras or by other means;
  • the nurse misrepresents the nurse's attendance on a sign-in or sign-out sheet for an in-person class, such as by signing in but then leaving, appearing at the end of the class to sign out, or having another student sign in or sign out for the nurse, as if in attendance for the full class, as detected by the instructor or other students;
  • the nurse straight up represents continuing education attendance and completion on a license renewal form when not having made any such effort in the actual continuing education course;
  • the nurse fabricates timesheets, calendar entries, or other documentation of continuing education attendance or coursework to meet the requirements of a continuing education audit.

Continuing Education Documentation

State nursing boards generally take one of two different approaches toward a nurse's documentation of continuing education contact hours. One common approach is to require the student to represent continuing education courses and hours on the license renewal form. Another approach is to ignore continuing education requirements and documentation at the time of license renewal but to audit a significant percentage of nurses annually, requiring the audited nurses to produce continuing education documents. The former states may rely primarily on the continuing education providers to confirm the attendance and hours the nurse represents. The latter states rely instead on the nurse's own documentation and recordkeeping. In either case, though, the state nursing board will have a means of reviewing documentation of continuing education hours for fraud.

How Officials Discover Continuing Education Fraud

The above illustrations of continuing education fraud suggest some of the means state nursing board officials have for detecting nursing fraud. A primary means, though, involves annual continuing education audits. According to the Michigan Bureau of Professional Licensing information, Michigan is among the states using the audit method to confirm continuing education. In Michigan, as in other states, you must retain documentation of your continuing education for the specified period, in Michigan for four years. If the audit selects you for verification, you must then submit that documentation, including a copy of the certificate you earned upon course completion. Michigan does not require documentation of continuing education at the time of license renewal. Nursing board officials may cross-check your presentation of a course certificate and representation of course completion against course provider records. Board officials may also look for internal inconsistencies in your records and representations. Take care documenting and representing your continuing education accurately, lest you face disciplinary charges for fraud due to inadvertent errors in your submissions.

Nursing Board Disciplinary Authority for Fraud

Your state nursing board has the disciplinary authority to punish you for continuing education fraud. State nursing practice acts generally articulate specific and general grounds for state nursing board discipline. Those grounds frequently expressly include fraud in seeking or obtaining a nursing license or similar credentials. The Minnesota Nurse Practice Act is an example. Its Section 148.261 on grounds for license discipline expressly includes credential fraud, defined to include “[e]mploying fraud or deceit in procuring or attempting to procure a permit, license, or registration certificate to practice advanced practice, professional, or practical nursing....” Misrepresenting continuing education contact hours would clearly fall within that definition, which is consistent with definitions in other state nursing practice acts.

Nursing Board Disciplinary Sanctions for Fraud

Your state nursing practice act will also very likely authorize sanctions right up to license suspension or expulsion for continuing education fraud. Nursing practice acts generally give state nursing boards broad discretionary authority to impose a range of progressive sanctions. Those sanctions run the gamut from simple cautions or reprimands, through probation with or without license conditions and restrictions, to fines, restitution, license suspension, and permanent license revocation. Once again, Minnesota's Nurse Practice Act is an example, providing in its Section 148.261 for the foregoing sanctions. You plainly want to avoid losing your license to suspension or revocation because it would require you to relinquish your employment and practice and lose the corresponding income and benefits. Lesser sanctions may not require interruption of your employment and practice, especially if your employer highly values your nursing services and determines to retain you if possible. We can assist you in communicating with your employer regarding the status of your disciplinary proceeding and the nature and import of any sanctions you face or suffer.

Mitigating Continuing Education Fraud Sanctions

Your state nursing board's similar discretionary authority to choose among potential sanctions gives our attorneys the opportunity to advocate for the mitigation of continuing education fraud sanctions. Because sanctions are not generally automatic or presumed, we may be able to show your state nursing board that it gains nothing by imposing license suspension, revocation, or other discipline in your specific case. We may instead be able to show the board that although you may have mistakenly or even deliberately misrepresented your continuing education, you nonetheless have the education, fitness, and other qualifications for safe and fit nursing practice. You may not have completed the continuing education hours you represented, but you may have completed equivalent hours in another program or may possess the continuing competence as demonstrated through research projects, teaching, publications, or other means that your state or other states recognize. Let us make your best case for mitigating and eliminating sanctions in the event that you must admit to continuing education documentation errors and inaccuracies.

The Possibility of License Reinstatement

If you have already lost your nursing license to continuing education fraud disciplinary charges, you may have an opportunity for license reinstatement. Many nursing practice acts offer reinstatement under certain conditions. The Colorado Board of Nursing, for instance, has adopted administrative rules for license reinstatement under the authority of the Colorado Nurse Practice Act and the state's professional occupations code. License reinstatement may require a waiting period of one or more years, a written application, supporting documentation of rehabilitation, fitness, or the applicant's meeting other terms and conditions, and a hearing before the state nursing board. We can help you meet these requirements to make your best case for license reinstatement if you qualify for license reinstatement under your state's nursing laws, rules, and regulations.

Board Procedures Over Licensing Issues

You will have the benefit of protective procedures if you face state nursing board allegations that you committed continuing education fraud. You have the constitutional right to due process against state action interfering with your property and liberty interests, such as your interest in your nursing license and employment. Your state nursing practice act likely recognizes that due process obligation by requiring your state nursing board to provide you with fair notice of the disciplinary charges and a fair hearing before an impartial decision maker. The Alabama Nurse Practice Act is an example. Its Section 34-21-25 requires the state nursing board to provide specific notice, hearing, and appeal procedures while also referring to and incorporating the protective procedures of the state's Administrative Procedures Act. Those procedures include not only detailed notice of the disciplinary charges well in advance of the hearing and pre-hearing conferences but also the nurse's right to retain counsel to present and challenge evidence at the hearing. Alabama and other states further provide for appeals either to a higher administrative body or straight to civil court.

The Attorney's Role in Nursing Board Procedures

We play a critical role in exercising your constitutional and statutory due process rights to challenge your continuing education fraud discipline. Protective procedures do not execute themselves. You must instead invoke them. We can do so in a strategic and effective manner to achieve the best disciplinary outcome for you. For instance, we can advocate for an early informal conference at which to present your exonerating evidence to negotiate for the board's voluntary dismissal of charges. Our attorneys know the interests the board must protect and the assurances the board may accept to do so without the necessity of imposing discipline.

If, instead, your matter proceeds to a formal hearing, we can ensure that you are prepared for the formal hearing with your witnesses and other exonerating evidence and mitigating information. We can also cross-examine adverse witnesses and otherwise challenge any other incriminating evidence. Our legal research, written hearing briefs, and oral arguments may well carry the day. If you have already lost your hearing, we can take your appeal, necessitating a showing of the material errors that led to the erroneous outcome. We may also be able to obtain civil court review and reversal if you have already lost your appeal. Do not give up. Let us exhaust all avenues until you have achieved your best possible disciplinary outcome. Your nursing license and career are more than worth the effort.

Your Stakes in a Continuing Education Fraud Case

When evaluating your best course of action, keep in mind all the stakes you have in your continuing education fraud license proceeding. You understand that your license, nursing employment, and nursing career are at stake. However, you should also recognize the potential and even probable collateral consequences of losing your nursing license. Lose your license in your current state, and you will likely lose your licenses in other states or your ability to obtain a reciprocal license in those states. Losing your license and employment also means losing your income and benefits, which can lead to loss of housing, transportation, health insurance, retirement funds, and other essentials, potentially affecting your family and family relationships. Don't underestimate what you have at stake. Notice of continuing education fraud allegations may seem like a relatively small thing in the grand scope of things. But it is not a small thing. It could lead to very big things. Put our attorneys to work on your defense. Doing so is your wisest and best possible action.

Premier Attorneys for Nursing License Defense

The Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team is available to defend you against continuing education fraud charges in your nursing license proceeding. Our attorneys are available nationwide. We have successfully defended hundreds of nurses and other professionals in their license proceedings, including on continuing fraud issues. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our premier license defense representation.

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