You studied and worked hard to earn your nursing degree and license. You have also invested a tremendous amount in your nursing job and career while reaping substantial and very due rewards. Criminal charges for driving under the influence (DUI), driving while intoxicated (DWI), or a similar crime threaten your nursing license, job, and career. If you face DUI or DWI charges, you need the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team for your license defense. You may already have retained a criminal defense attorney to handle the DUI charge in criminal court. However, you still need a nursing license defense representation for your administrative proceeding before your state nursing board.
Our highly skilled and experienced license defense attorneys are available nationwide to help you address your nursing license issues. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for the strategic and effective professional license defense you need to preserve your nursing license, job, and career. In the meantime, consider the following questions nurses facing DUI/DWI charges frequently ask about their nursing license. Also, see the specific information for your state on this DUI/DWI nursing license subject for more detailed information relating to your state nursing board and its licensing laws, rules, and regulations.
Why Do Nurses Face Substance Abuse Issues?
You are not alone, as a nurse facing substance abuse issues like a state criminal charge for driving under the influence (DUI) or driving while intoxicated (DWI). Nursing practice can be stressful, both mentally and physically challenging. The stresses of nursing can lead to mental and physical conditions warranting prescription medication. Nurses may also imbibe alcohol or self-medicate with recreational substances or illicit medication to counteract those practice stresses. Nurses also have greater access to prescription medications and other mood-altering substances. These peculiar nursing issues can add to the general use and abuse of intoxicating liquor and other substances. For whatever reason, nurses use and abuse substances at a greater rate than the general population, too often leading to DUI or DWI charges. See our webpage on nurses and substance abuse issues for more information on this subject. You are not the only nurse facing these issues. Be wise, though. Retain us to help you hold onto your nursing license.
What is a DUI/DWI Charge?
Driving under the influence (DUI) or driving while intoxicated or impaired (DWI) are state crimes involving the operation of a motor vehicle while impaired by drugs or alcohol. Under federal highway funding laws and incentives, states uniformly adopt .08% presumptive blood alcohol content (BAC) levels for impaired or intoxicated driving. That presumption means that you may suffer a DUI or DWI conviction without any apparent impairment, simply by breath or blood testing at or over the .08% limit. However, under the same state laws, you may still suffer a charge and conviction without a test or with a legal test if you otherwise show impairment in the arresting officer's observations or roadside sobriety tests. You may be able to hold your liquor well as a functioning alcoholic and still suffer a conviction for being over the legal limit. Conversely, you may show impairment on a below-limit blood alcohol content or from a drug rather than alcohol, likewise suffering conviction. Texas's DUI/DWI laws are a typical example. DUI or DWI charges have many other ins and outs that may impact your criminal court proceeding, but with which your state nursing board may be largely unconcerned if it discerns that you have a substance abuse, dependency, or addiction issue affecting your fitness to practice nursing.
What Substances May Result in a DUI/DWI?
As just suggested, state DUI/DWI laws across the nation criminalize driving a motor vehicle under the influence not just of alcohol but also of legal, illegal, prescribed, therapeutic, or recreational drugs. While the quantity and type of alcohol or drug you consume may affect the level of your criminal charge and the proof the prosecutor must show for your criminal court conviction, you may still suffer a criminal conviction and relatedly face nursing license disciplinary proceedings for imbibing any impairing substance affecting your motor vehicle driving.
Do the Substances Matter for My License Proceeding?
Probably. If your DUI/DWI charge involves alcohol rather than drugs, then you can expect a state nursing board investigation and inquiries regarding your habit of imbibing alcohol. You may have to show that you do not drink frequently, rarely if ever over-imbibe, and have no substance abuse, dependency, or addiction issue involving alcohol. If you do have alcohol issues, then you will need to promptly address them so that we can show the state nursing board that you no longer represent a patient risk and are instead fully fit for nursing practice.
If your DUI/DWI charge involves drugs rather than alcohol, you may face different state nursing board disciplinary issues. If, for instance, the drugs are illicit drugs, obtained only unlawfully on the black market, then you may face a strong presumption against your good character for nursing and other suspicions regarding your addiction to the illegal substance. If, on the other hand, your DUI/DWI charge is related to the influence of prescription drugs, then you will likely have to show that you had a lawful prescription for the involved drug. Otherwise, you may face additional license disciplinary charges for diversion and misuse of prescription medication. Our attorneys can help you parse these important issues and address them before your state nursing board to your best effect.
How Do Nursing Boards Learn of DUI/DWI Charges?
Your state nursing board may learn of your DUI/DWI charge in any number of ways. First, you may have an obligation under your state's Nursing Practice Act and your state nursing board's implementing regulations to self-report your DUI/DWI arrest, charge, or conviction. Alternatively, you may have to self-disclose your DUI/DWI arrest on your license renewal application if the form requires you to make that disclosure. A false representation or deliberate omission of your DUI/DWI charge may lead to other state nursing board disciplinary charges for credential fraud. State nursing practice acts and their implementing regulations routinely include credential fraud among the grounds for license suspension and revocation. Don't expect to conceal your DUI/DWI issue. The coverup can be worse than the crime. Instead, let our attorneys advise you as to how, when, and whether to disclose your DUI/DWI issue to your state nursing board.
State nursing boards learn of DUI/DWI arrests, charges, and convictions through other means, too. Some state laws and law enforcement systems provide for prosecutors or other court officials to notify state professional licensing boards when certain criminal charges enter against a licensed professional. The prosecutor or criminal court in your DUI/DWI case may notify your state nursing board on its own. State licensing boards also sometimes conduct routine searches of criminal and other records to discover charges against their licensed professionals. Your state nursing board may thus discover your DUI/DWI charge or conviction on its own initiative. Individuals may also notify state licensing boards of a professional's criminal charge. A patient or patient's family member learning of your DUI/DWI charge may notify the nursing board. Your employer and professional colleagues may have their own regulatory duties to report your suspected unfitness. They, too, may notify the nursing board of your DUI/DWI charge. The board may also follow public media reports of your issue if any exist. Again, don't expect to conceal your DUI/DWI issue. Get our help with any necessary disclosures to your employer or state nursing board.
How Will the Nursing Board Investigate?
Once your state nursing board receives notice of your DUI/DWI charge or conviction, it may investigate your DUI/DWI issue first by assigning an experienced disciplinary investigator to your case. The investigator may obtain and review court records, police reports, blood alcohol and drug testing records, witness statements, and other available documentation, much of it through law enforcement. The investigator may also contact your employer, professional colleagues, and other professional or even personal acquaintances, gathering any evidence of substance abuse issues. At some point, the investigator may contact you for an interview. Once the investigator completes the investigation, the investigator may prepare an investigation report to share with other disciplinary officials to determine the appropriate disciplinary charges and course.
How Should I Respond to Board Investigation?
Your response to your state nursing board's investigation may be critical to the outcome of your DUI/DWI licensing matter. Your state nursing practice act and its implementing regulations likely require you to cooperate with disciplinary investigations. You will need to answer requests for information timely, accurately, comprehensively, and consistently, without contradictions. The Washington State Nursing Board, for instance, expressly declares that a failure to cooperate with a disciplinary investigation violates the law and implicates discipline. You do not, for instance, have a right against self-incrimination in a license disciplinary proceeding, although you may need to exercise such a right to protect your criminal proceeding interests. You should thus retain us immediately after you suffer a DUI/DWI arrest before your state nursing board initiates its investigation and contacts you for information. We can help you gather the evidence and information you will need and help you ensure that your responses are timely, accurate, and in your best licensing interests.
Do the Circumstances of My DUI/DWI Matter?
Maybe. Nurses who have no substance abuse, dependency, or addiction issue whatsoever may still suffer a DUI/DWI stop, arrest, infraction, or criminal charge. They may have had a single social drink when they ordinarily do not imbibe at all. Or they may have suffered a DUI/DWI arrest after having an unanticipated reaction to a lawfully prescribed medication. We may be able to present those kinds of more innocent or explainable circumstances to your state nursing board to help you avoid a nursing license suspension or revocation, even if you suffer a criminal conviction based on the same evidence. However, a state nursing board may still construe a DUI/DWI stop and arrest as an indication of a nurse's carelessness and recklessness over personal composure and fitness, no matter the relatively innocent circumstances. Be sure to retain us to make your best defense case in your licensing proceeding.
Why Are DUI/DWI Charges a Licensing Risk?
Nurses face licensing risks from DUI/DWI charges because state nursing boards reasonably construe DUI/DWI stops, arrests, infractions, charges, and convictions as indications that the involved nurse may have a substance abuse, dependency, or addiction issue potentially impairing nursing practice. Drunk driving can lead to serious injury or worse. Impaired nursing can do likewise. Impaired nurses may forget, ignore, or misconstrue physician orders, practice careless nursing methods, and fail to observe and care for patients within nursing practice standards. State nursing boards must protect patients and the public against impaired nurses. Nurses are not the only professionals facing licensing issues from DUI/DWI charges. Physicians, lawyers, social workers, psychologists, airline pilots, commercial truck drivers, and other professionals all face similar risks. Don't underestimate your state nursing board's concern over your DUI/DWI charges. Instead, retain us to help you responsibly address and alleviate the board's concerns.
How Do DUI/DWI Charges Relate to Licensing?
Your DUI/DWI charges are a criminal proceeding brought by a public prosecutor based on a law enforcement investigation. That DUI/DWI criminal proceeding occurs in a state court. By contrast, your related state nursing board licensing proceeding is an independent proceeding that your state board's disciplinary officials initiate in an administrative rather than court context. Licensing proceedings do not begin or proceed in court, although later court appeals and civil litigation may be available to overturn an erroneous administrative ruling. Criminal court proceedings are one thing, while administrative proceedings are entirely another. The two proceedings will generally move forward independently of one another, although in some cases, disciplinary officials may await the criminal court outcome to ensure that law enforcement evidence is readily available in the disciplinary proceeding. Prosecutors can play things close to the vest until their criminal cases conclude, after which law enforcement witnesses and evidence may be more readily available.
Must I Suffer DUI/DWI Conviction to Affect Licensing?
Not necessarily. A DUI/DWI stop, arrest, and charge may be sufficient to require you to report the issue to your state nursing board or for the board to learn of the event from law enforcement or public sources, triggering a disciplinary investigation. If that investigation determines that you have a substance abuse issue, whether you suffered a DUI/DWI conviction or not may not matter to your licensing outcome. You must still convince the board of your fitness to practice nursing. On the other hand, if you avoid conviction and defeat the criminal charges, those successes may make it easier to prove that you did not drive while intoxicated, you have no substance abuse issue, you respect the law, and you are fit for nursing practice. Obviously, defend and defeat the criminal DUI/DWI charges if you can, with your criminal defense attorney's help. But whether you suffer a criminal DUI/DWI conviction or not, you'll very likely need our skilled and experienced representation to deal with the state nursing board's investigation.
What If the Criminal Court Reduces the Charges?
If you plead to a lesser criminal charge or the prosecutor drops the criminal charge or the court dismisses it, you may still face the same state nursing board disciplinary proceeding, especially if the charge alerted disciplinary officials who began an investigation. They will likely then complete the investigation to determine on their own whether you have a substance abuse issue affecting your fitness for nursing practice. But as just indicated above, a favorable outcome to your DUI/DWI proceeding may make it easier for us to prove that you do not have an alcohol or drug abuse problem and that you remain fit for nursing practice. Your successful plea to a lesser charge or the criminal court's dismissal may indicate to disciplinary officials that your substance issue, if any, was not as serious as the initial DUI/DWI charge indicated. You're not home free. The state nursing board will make up its own mind on the disciplinary charges. But you may have gained a leg up with a good result in the criminal case. Let our attorneys ensure that you see that better disciplinary results come to fruition.
Do Boards Have Power to Discipline for DUIs?
In a word, yes. State nursing practice acts uniformly authorize state nursing boards not only to license nurses but also to discipline those licenses. State nursing practice acts or their authorized regulations list the grounds for license discipline. Those grounds routinely include both substance abuse or dependency issues and criminal conviction for a crime related to nursing practice. Your state nursing board may well consider a DUI/DWI conviction to both indicate a substance abuse issue and to implicate your fitness for nursing practice. Do not ignore or underestimate your state nursing board's concern over your DUI/DWI charge. You will very likely have to deal with your state nursing board over your DUI/DWI charge sooner or later when sooner may be better than later. Let us help you determine when and how to communicate with your state nursing board over your pending or resolved DUI/DWI charges.
What Discipline Could I Suffer for a DUI/DWI?
State nursing practice acts generally authorize a full range of disciplinary sanctions for the articulated disciplinary grounds, leaving the specific sanction to the state nursing board's discretion. Your state nursing board may have the authority to impose anything from no sanction all the way to the most severe sanction for your DUI/DWI issue, depending on its best judgment. That discretion makes retaining our skilled and experienced attorneys all the more important because the quality and content of your defense presentation may go a long way toward determining how the state nursing board exercises its discretion. Our best possible defense may carry the day in your case. That said, state nursing practice acts generally authorize the following progressive sanctions, drawn from the representative Indiana Code Section 25-1-9-9:
- private letter of warning;
- private letter of reprimand;
- public censure;
- probation with monitoring and reporting;
- probation with practice limitations and conditions;
- probation with continuing education and training;
- probation with community service;
- fines and restitution;
- license suspension; and
- license revocation.
Are License Sanctions Automatic for DUI/DWIs?
Probably not. Keep in mind that a state licensing board charge of misconduct relating to your DUI/DWI is not the same as a finding of misconduct. You have the right, with our help, to defend the charges. Further, a finding of misconduct related to your DUI/DWI charge or conviction is not the same as the imposition of a sanction. You also have the right to put on a case in mitigation of sanctions. Some state nursing practice acts and implementing regulations do presume certain sanctions for certain disciplinary grounds, such as conviction of criminal offenses relating to violence, drug distribution, and the like. But your DUI/DWI charge may not be among those wrongs warranting an automatic sanction. Laws presuming certain licensing sanctions for certain crimes may still permit the licensee to overcome the presumption with a strong defense case in mitigation. Let our attorneys present your best case for mitigating any sanctions.
What Do I Have at Stake in a License Proceeding?
You have just seen above the discipline that your state nursing license board may impose relating to your DUI/DWI criminal court charges. You know the potential licensing risks. But when determining to retain our premier attorneys for your best licensing defense, you should keep in mind that you have more at stake than just your nursing license. You will lose your nursing employment if you lose your nursing license. You may also lose nursing licenses you hold in other states once your license discipline enters the nationwide Nursys database system. You may also lose the ability to gain a new license or renew a license in other states for both nursing and other healthcare professions. Your entire nursing career may be at stake. And, of course, a nurse who loses employment and career may lose housing, transportation, health insurance, retirement contributions, and a host of other financial, personal, and professional benefits along with it. In short, you may have everything at stake in your licensing proceeding. Treat it accordingly. Retain our premier defense services.
Do I Need Both Criminal and Licensing Attorneys?
Yes. You should ordinarily retain skilled and experienced local criminal defense counsel to address, defend, and, if possible, defeat your DUI/DWI charge in criminal court. You will need criminal court defense representation. We do not generally provide local criminal defense services. We have made premier professional license defense our full commitment and practice niche. You should separately retain our skilled and experienced administrative license defense attorneys for your state nursing board proceeding. You will need two lawyers or lawyer teams, not one. And don't hesitate to make that investment. Because we devote our practice to professional license defense, we can be much more efficient and effective than unqualified local criminal defense counsel would be in an administrative license proceeding. Likewise, your local criminal defense counsel can be more efficient in defending your DUI/DWI criminal court charges than our attorneys might be if we were to undertake your dual representation in both proceedings.
Why Not Let My Criminal Lawyer Handle Licensing?
Because local criminal defense attorneys ordinarily do not have the strategic skill, substantial experience, and refined qualifications to conduct administrative license defense proceedings for their best possible outcome. Saying so is not to denigrate your local criminal defense attorney's commitment to criminal defense practice. It's instead that the two systems, one a criminal justice system, and the other an administrative regulatory system, have different goals, customs, conventions, rules, procedures, and ends. For the best outcome in your state nursing board licensing proceeding, you need our attorneys who know the practices, procedures, options, and probable outcomes and can apply that wisdom to your defense's best effect. One of the worst mistakes a professional can make is to retain unqualified representation in these unique administrative license proceedings. Unqualified counsel may do more harm than good. Instead, let us help. It will be your best decision in the matter.
Can a Nurse Challenge DUI/DWI Discipline?
Yes. Nurses generally have the constitutional right to due process before a state nursing board can deprive them of their property and liberty interest in their nursing license, employment, and practice. State nursing practice acts and their implementing regulations also generally provide for due process protections, often referring to those protections as the state's administrative procedures act. The State of Washington's Nurse Practice Act is an example. It references and incorporates the procedural rules of the state's disciplinary act for all professions. Those procedural rules, in turn, reference and incorporate the due process protections of the state's Administrative Procedure Act for things like notice to the accused professional, a fair hearing before an administrative law judge, and the opportunity to present and cross-examine witnesses. You will have similar procedural protections available to you in your state. We can help you invoke those procedures to your best DUI/DWI defense advantage.
What Are the Procedures for Licensing Charges?
Keep in mind that the due process protections are not self-executing. You generally need to affirmatively step forward with the timely right actions to invoke those procedures. We can help you do so. Those procedures generally begin with the state nursing board's written notice to you of the charges. We can help you evaluate the charges. The notice may require your timely response. We can help you answer the charges, raise appropriate defenses, and gather the evidence to support those defenses. The procedures typically include some pre-hearing procedures. We can help you invoke those procedures to advocate for the board's voluntary dismissal of the charges on the grounds and evidence we present, including your defeat of the DUI/DWI charges or your rehabilitation and fitness for nursing practice. If your disciplinary matter proceeds to a formal hearing, we can present your exonerating and mitigating evidence at that hearing while cross-examining adverse witnesses and challenging incriminating evidence.
What Is the Attorney's Role in Licensing Procedures?
Our role begins with helping you assess the potential impact of your DUI/DWI matter on your nursing license. We can help you identify and weigh the incriminating, exonerating, and mitigating evidence so that together, we can plan your strategic defense in the license proceeding. You first need to know what you face before you can determine how to face it. We can then help you deal with the state nursing board's investigation. That help may include preparing you for the investigator's interview, gathering and presenting to the investigator your exonerating and mitigating evidence, and even negotiating with the investigator over compromise outcomes and options that the state nursing board may accept in voluntary early resolution of your matter. You may, for instance, already have entertained or even completed a substance abuse evaluation and treatment program in connection with the DUI/DWI event. We may be able to help you convince the investigator and state nursing board that it needs to take no further action than the private remedial steps you have already taken or are preparing to take.
If, instead, the state nursing board decides to proceed with formal charges, we may be able to arrange a conciliation conference in which to present your case for dismissal of the disciplinary proceeding. If the case proceeds to a formal hearing, then we can help you prepare for the hearing. At the hearing, we can present your testimony and other witnesses and evidence while cross-examining the board's incriminating witnesses and challenging the board's evidence of your alleged unfitness. We can also prepare hearing briefs and make the legal arguments that the hearing official or panel will expect from a prevailing defense case. Once you prevail in your defense case before the state nursing board, we can ensure that the board properly documents its files so that your record remains clear and you have the ability to renew your license or license in other states without having to address once again your DUI/DWI matter.
What If I Have Already Lost My Licensing Hearing?
If you have already lost your disciplinary hearing, we may be able to take appeals to reverse the adverse findings and soften or eliminate any sanctions. State administrative procedures typically offer some form of appeal, either to the full state nursing board or another higher state official or body, and sometimes directly to a civil court. In either case, we can prepare and pursue your appeal to your best advantage. Your appeal must do more than simply repeat the arguments you made at the hearing. Your appeal must identify the errors in the hearing decision or procedures around the hearing. Let us pursue and exhaust your appeal and litigation avenues until we help you obtain the best available relief.
What About Alternatives to Discipline Programs?
Many state nursing practice acts authorize the state nursing board to adopt an alternative to discipline program for nurses with substance abuse issues. These alternative discipline programs vary from state to state but generally permit nurses with substance abuse issues to come forward before a disciplinary complaint occurs to enter a board-approved treatment and monitoring program. We offer webpage explanations for the alternative to discipline programs available to nurses in each state, such as this webpage for Massachusetts nurses with substance abuse issues. See that detailed information for your state.
Consider this brief caution, though, about alternatives to discipline programs. Surely, the programs have a laudable intention to rescue nurses from their addictions while saving their nursing careers. However, in practice, the programs may instead complicate and worsen an already difficult problem. First of all, you may not qualify for the program if the state nursing board has already initiated a disciplinary complaint over your DUI/DWI charge. Second, even if you qualify for the program, you may not need it. You may be better off addressing your substance abuse issue on your own, with your own resources, if you even have any such problem. Moreover, the programs can impose such onerous drug testing, counseling, monitoring, and reporting requirements over such a lengthy period over years that you may end up facing license suspension for program noncompliance when you long ago addressed your substance abuse issue. You may also have to relinquish your nursing license before you enter the program. Let us advise you before you agree to enter any such program.
Is License Reinstatement Possible?
You may have already lost your nursing license due to DUI/DWI charges and convictions. If so, you may have the opportunity to invoke your state nursing board's discretion to reinstate your license. State nursing practice acts and their implementing regulations often authorize license reinstatement, depending on the grounds for license suspension or revocation, and conditioned on the lapse of time, proof of rehabilitation, and other matters. The Wisconsin Nurse Practice Act is an example, stating that “the board may reinstate a revoked license....” A one-year waiting period is a common condition, and many state nursing boards require your written application and your appearance at a reinstatement hearing. Given that reinstatement, where available, is usually discretionary with the board and requires a convincing showing of your fitness, you should have our attorneys' strategic and skilled representation to make your reinstatement application. We are available to evaluate your reinstatement opportunities and pursue that application.
How Should I Deal with My Nursing Employer?
Dealing properly with your employer during your state nursing board licensing proceeding may be critical to your continued employment. Of course, you will need to retain your nursing license in good standing to continue your nursing employment. We will be at work for you as soon as you retain us. However, your employer may misconstrue your state board licensing proceeding as grounds to believe that you are unfit and that it should terminate your employment before the board reaches any misconduct findings. That's where we may be able to help you deal with your employer. Our attorneys have the knowledge, skill, and reputation to gain employers' confidence in accurate reports and interpretations of the pending state board licensing proceeding. Put simply; if we tell your employer that we are defending your disciplinary proceeding earnestly, skillfully, and effectively, your employer may be much more likely to continue your employment while awaiting the board's decision on the charges. Let us help you reassure your employer with accurate information and documentation of the status of your license and the license proceeding to ensure your employer is aware of your lawful nursing practice.
Premier Attorneys for Nursing License Defense
If you have suffered a DUI/DWI criminal charge, you will also face a state nursing board disciplinary proceeding in which you need skilled and experienced administrative defense attorney representation. Do not retain unqualified local criminal defense counsel or another unqualified local attorney. You have far too much at stake to do anything other than to retain the best available representation. Retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team to represent you in your nursing license proceeding. We are available no matter your nationwide location. Our attorneys have helped hundreds of nurses and other professionals retain their licenses against all kinds of disciplinary charges, including DUI/DWI charges and convictions. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our premier defense representation.
