Your nursing practice has likely already brought you significant financial, personal, and professional rewards. You also likely have a reasonable expectation of continuing to earn those rewards well into the future. Yet allegations that you vandalized or sabotaged property or equipment within your healthcare facilities can lead to the disciplinary suspension and revocation of your nursing license. Lose your license to discipline, and you will lose your nursing employment and career. The Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team can help you defend disciplinary charges for your best licensing outcome. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our highly qualified attorney representation.
Definitions of Vandalism
To get a sense of how allegations that you vandalized property or equipment within your healthcare facility can affect your nursing license, first consider what vandalism is. Nursing rules may not give vandalism any special definition if they mention vandalism at all. Vandalism instead has a common definition, as it appears in other contexts. For instance, federal regulations protecting public property, codified at 36 CFR 2.31, define vandalism as deliberately “destroying, injuring, defacing, or damaging” real or personal property. Vandalism involves intentional property damage and destruction, not injury or offense to a person, although vandalism can certainly alarm, offend, upset, and in the rare case even injure a person, too. Don't purposely destroy things at your workplace. Vandalism allegations may follow, especially if the facility suffers financial loss or someone suffers injury.
Examples of Healthcare Facility Vandalism
Workplace violence is surprisingly common in healthcare facilities, according to a healthcare security survey. The same survey shows that healthcare facility vandalism makes up a relatively small but still significant percentage of that workplace violence. Disorderly conduct, assault, and theft are more common acts of healthcare facility violence. When healthcare facility vandalism occurs, it may involve any of the following examples:
- graffiti spray painted, marked, scratched, or scored into or onto walls, counters, mirrors, cabinetry, furniture, and other surfaces, including offensive words and graphics;
- holes and dents punched or kicked into walls, cabinetry, and other surfaces, marring, degrading, damaging, and breaking the surfaces;
- equipment tipped over, snapped, broken, burned, or otherwise abused to the point of damage or destruction;
- linen, supplies, and other goods and materials removed from safekeeping and piled, thrown, littered, or otherwise distributed about the facility in a haphazard fashion;
- beds, chairs, desks, or other furniture pushed, pulled, carried, or otherwise moved into inappropriate places and configurations;
- hallways, stairways, elevators, doors, and other ways of passage or ingress and egress blocked or littered with objects from within or outside of the facility;
- papers, books, pamphlets, or other printed materials removed from racks, tables, or other places of safekeeping and strewn around the facility in disorderly fashion; and
- electronic files or equipment invaded, altered, and damaged or destroyed to frustrate their use and safekeeping.
Definitions of Sabotage
The same is true for sabotage, that to appreciate the potential impact of sabotage charges against your nursing license, you should understand what sabotage is, but you won't find special definitions of sabotage in nursing rules and regulations. Dictionary definitions tend to define sabotage as the deliberate and secret frustration of another's reasonable goal or objective. Legal definitions are harder to find, but the federal statute 18 USC Section 2155 on sabotage of war materials defines it as the willful destruction or attempt to destroy materials to frustrate national defense. Don't purposely destroy or disrupt anything in your healthcare facility that would frustrate the facility's operation or interfere with its personnel. If you do, disciplinary charges may follow, especially if the facility suffers loss or anyone suffers harm or injury.
Examples of Healthcare Facility Sabotage
Sabotage of one form or another may be more common in healthcare facilities than anyone unfamiliar with their operation would think. But nurses who have been in overcrowded, understaffed, poorly supervised, ill equipped, or otherwise mismanaged healthcare facilities are probably familiar with examples of healthcare facility sabotage. Examples of healthcare facility sabotage may include:
- secretly removing or altering medical or other records to make it appear that another healthcare worker responsible for those records has not properly performed their duties, with the intent of embarrassing or oppressing that other worker or retaliating against them;
- surreptitiously disconnecting or removing equipment prepared or installed by another healthcare worker, with the intent of indicating to supervisors that the worker is careless or incompetent;
- removing or concealing drugs, medications, supplies, or equipment to deny those materials from other healthcare workers needing the materials to properly perform their job, to undermine their performance;
- falsely reporting that another healthcare worker was responsible for circumstances leading to a patient's injury or damage to facility equipment, or arranging the circumstances to make it appear that the other healthcare worker was responsible, with the intent of undermining the other healthcare worker; or
- purposely supplying defective equipment to another healthcare worker without revealing the defects, with the intent that the healthcare worker perform incompetently due to the defects.
The Necessary State of Mind
It is important to keep in mind from the above definitions and examples that both vandalism and sabotage require a certain state of mind. That state of mind must generally be one of guilty knowledge, as the law would generally call it. Vandalism and sabotage are specific intent actions, to put it another way that the law characterizes it. For a vandalism or sabotage charge to stick, your actions must generally be purposeful, deliberate, willful, or intentional, all meaning roughly the same thing. You must have had the desire to accomplish the nefarious end that the actions imply. Careless actions resulting in property damage are not vandalism. Likewise, careless actions interfering with another's work performance are not sabotage. The reprehensibility of vandalism and sabotage has a lot to do with the implication of evil intent that they leave. That evil intention is what makes them serious allegations. You'd rather be a little careless than have the bad character vandalism and sabotage both imply.
Perpetrators of Healthcare Facility Vandalism
Healthcare facilities certainly suffer vandalism and sabotage. But nurses are not always, and not ordinarily, the ones who commit it. Vandalism and sabotage are more often and more likely the results of actions by outsiders. Hence, one healthcare security service's recommendation is to limit public access and to install surveillance systems to discourage healthcare facility vandalism and sabotage. Patients or their family members may also commit vandalism or sabotage related to their frustration or anger over conditions and services. Nurses, though, may face false allegations that they committed the vandalism or sabotage that outsiders, patients, or their family members committed. And nurses do sometimes commit sabotage and vandalism. Let us help you defend any such disciplinary charges by proving your innocence and the access and responsibility of others.
Causes of Vandalism and Sabotage
That said, healthcare facility vandalism and sabotage, when committed by nurses or other healthcare facility workers, can have common causes. Those causes likely most often involve the healthcare facility's mismanagement. Nurses who face abusive supervisors, demeaning physicians, staffing and resource shortages, extreme schedules, impossible work demands, and other mismanagement and workplace abuse may react with retaliatory vandalism or sabotage. Nurses can also suffer from mental and emotional delusions and breakdowns that contribute to vandalism and sabotage. Extreme personality conflicts, mismanaged by supervisors and human resources, can make a toxic mix in any workplace but especially in a workplace as demanding as a healthcare facility and a profession as demanding as nursing. An American Nurse journal article describes the unfortunate phenomenon of “Snakes at the Nursing Station.” Let us help you give this context to your actions in defense of disciplinary charges if those were your circumstances relating to the allegations.
The Impact of Vandalism and Sabotage
The greatest impact on you of vandalism and sabotage allegations is likely to be related to your nursing license, through state nursing board disciplinary charges. Get our help defending those charges. Civil liability or criminal charges will not likely be your first or main concern. State laws may define vandalism as a crime. Michigan Penal Code Section 750.377a, for instance, makes it a felony or misdemeanor crime to “willfully and maliciously destroy or injure the personal property of another,” depending on the property's value. But your bigger concern should be with disciplinary charges. Characterizing your alleged misconduct as criminal may simply make it more likely that professional discipline will follow licensing rules punishing crimes relating to nursing practice. Let our highly qualified licensed defense attorneys help. Do not retain an unqualified local criminal defense attorney.
Reporting of Vandalism and Sabotage
You may wonder who would report your alleged vandalism or sabotage. State nursing board rules generally encourage anyone, from your colleagues to your patients, their family members, your employer, or members of the public, to report suspected nurse misconduct. A state nursing board survey of reporting requirements found a wide variety in reporting rules. Some states, though, require nurses to report other nurses' misconduct, including in Colorado, New Mexico, and South Carolina. Allegations of your suspected vandalism or sabotage can come from any direction. Expect them to come, though, from the individuals most affected by the property damage or workplace disruption, especially those individuals who respect and trust you the least.
Avoiding Vandalism and Sabotage Charges
You may be able to avoid state nursing board disciplinary charges if you act quickly by retaining us for your defense as soon as you hear of the vandalism or sabotage allegations. We may be able to communicate and negotiate with the individual or individuals who suspect your vandalism or sabotage, showing that you were not the wrongdoer or that your actions were innocent, misconstrued, misunderstood, or exaggerated by others. We may also be able to present mitigating information having to do with things like medication reactions or workplace stresses. If we cannot head off a complaint, then we may be able to communicate with the state nursing board investigator with the same information and evidence to head off formal disciplinary charges. Don't wait for the formal charges to drop. Get our help as soon as you learn of the allegations.
Nursing Board Authority to Discipline
If you do face allegations of vandalism or sabotage, don't doubt your state nursing board's authority to discipline your license. State nursing boards routinely retain the power to discipline for misconduct, right up to suspending and revoking your license. Section 2761 of the California Nurse Practice Act is an example, authorizing the California Board of Registered Nursing to discipline licensed nurses on a wide range of grounds. State nursing boards across the country hold such disciplinary powers while retaining and empowering disciplinary staff members. They also routinely publish disciplinary action reports, as state nursing laws typically require. We can help you defend the disciplinary charges. Just don't minimize and ignore the allegations. You may suffer a default on the disciplinary charges if you do not respond timely and appropriate. Get our help.
Disciplinary Grounds for Vandalism or Sabotage
Your state nursing board must find grounds in the state's Nurse Practice Act and state nursing board rules for your discipline for vandalism or sabotage. Nursing laws and rules on disciplinary grounds are generally broad enough to catch almost anything that disrupts the nursing workplace, endangers patients, or embarrasses the nursing profession. The foregoing California disciplinary rule, Section 2761 of the California Nurse Practice Act, is again an example. Section 2761 prohibits unprofessional conduct, incompetence, and gross negligence in carrying out nursing duties, any or all of which would likely reach vandalism or sabotage, depending on the peculiar facts and circumstances. Your state nursing board disciplinary officials will likely find statutory or regulatory grounds for the charge, again, depending on how serious the allegations of vandalism or sabotage are. Our attorneys will ensure that your state nursing board officials do not go beyond their allowable grounds for discipline. More so, we will marshal and present your best factual, legal, and procedural defense.
Disciplinary Sanctions for Vandalism or Sabotage
State nursing practice acts routinely authorize a wide range of discipline for a nurse's violation of state nursing statutes, rules, or standards. Section 54.1-3007 of the Virginia Nurse Practice Act is an example of authorizing license reprimand, censure, probation, limitation, condition, suspension, or revocation for disciplinary violations. But neither a disciplinary charge nor a disciplinary finding necessarily mean that punitive sanctions must follow. We may be able to show your state nursing board that your actions do not warrant punitive measures. We may be able to make a full case in mitigation of sanctions based on your peculiar circumstances, including things like unexpected medication reactions or extraordinary uncontrollable workplace stresses, since corrected. We may be able to show that remedial measures are appropriate and preferred, whether involving counseling, evaluation, training, monitoring, mentoring, or supervision. Let us make your best case for mitigating disciplinary sanctions.
Impacts of Discipline on Your Nursing License
If you do suffer discipline, you should be cautious of the potentially broad and damaging impacts. Any license discipline, even as little as reprimand or probation, could result in your employment termination, depending on how your nursing employer regards your conduct and values your nursing services. Let us help you communicate with your employer regarding the status and outcome of your disciplinary proceeding in ways that reassure your employer of your fitness for continued employment. If you do suffer license suspension or revocation, then you must stop your nursing practice until you regain your license through lifting of the suspension or reinstatement. We can help you show your state nursing board that you have satisfied all conditions for the restoration of your license. If you do lose your license, you may be able to gain other nursing-related employment, such as administration, billing, or recordkeeping, that does not involve the practice of nursing. Just don't underestimate the potential impacts on your nursing employment and career and on your finances and relationships when deciding how to answer and respond to disciplinary charges. Retain us to put your best defense case forward for your best disciplinary outcome.
Defenses to Vandalism or Sabotage Charges
Just because you face state nursing board disciplinary charges does not mean that you must suffer discipline. Your state nursing board officials may be expecting you to come forward with a reasonable explanation for what they regard as suspect allegations. They may already doubt the credibility of the complaints. Let us help you respond to the investigation or complaint with truthful, accurate, complete, and consistent information. Any of the following arguments may make for a good defense to vandalism or sabotage charges, depending on the facts in your case:
- you did not commit the alleged vandalism or sabotage, which others committed but for which they blame you;
- the property destruction or service disruption was not intentional or deliberate and thus not vandalism or sabotage;
- your actions did not damage or destroy property or disrupt other workers so that they did not constitute vandalism or sabotage;
- your actions were under the direction of supervisors, as you reasonably understood and respected;
- the alleged vandalism or sabotage is not a disqualifying crime, as the Illinois Board of Nursing indicates in its interpreting circular; or
- you suffered a temporary and unpredictable medication reaction or other mental or emotional reaction due to circumstances beyond your control, which you have corrected and will not suffer again.
Protective Procedures on Disciplinary Charges
Your state's nursing practice act will give our attorneys substantial opportunities to present your defenses to vandalism or sabotage disciplinary charges. You generally have a constitutional right to due process in state nursing board disciplinary proceedings. That right includes fair notice of what you allegedly did wrong and a fair hearing before an impartial decision maker. Section 2760.1 of the California Nurse Practice Act provides an example, providing for fair administrative hearing procedures on license actions and reinstatement. We can invoke those notice and hearing procedures before your state nursing board to gather and present your best defense while challenging the adverse evidence. If you have already lost your formal hearing on vandalism or sabotage charges, let us invoke your available appeals. If you have already lost your appeals, we may be able to obtain judicial review and reversal based on bias, legal errors, due process violations, and conflicts of interest. Let us exhaust your administrative and other remedies until we gain you appropriate relief.
The Role of License Defense Counsel
The above discussion suggests some of the many actions our attorneys can take to present your defenses, marshal a case in mitigation of sanctions, enforce your procedural rights, and protect your nursing license against unfair and unnecessary discipline. Do not retain unqualified local criminal defense counsel or an unqualified civil litigation attorney for your administrative licensing matter. Administrative laws, rules, and procedures differ from court procedures. You need our highly qualified attorney representation. Our attorneys focus their practice on professional license defense. That focus gives them broad experience, national reputation, and licensing official relationships for your best strategic defense. We have the trust, confidence, and respect of state nursing board officials because we know the licensing laws, rules, customs, conventions, and procedures. We also know the outcomes state nursing board officials are most likely to accept that will fulfill their duties for public and patient protection.
Premier License Defense Attorneys Available
If you face state nursing board disciplinary charges alleging your vandalism or sabotage, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team now for your best possible disciplinary outcome. Our highly qualified attorneys have helped hundreds of nurses and other healthcare professionals retain their licenses against state board disciplinary charges nationwide. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for the skilled and experienced attorneys you need to protect your nursing license, employment, and career.
