Obtaining a nursing license to gain nursing employment and all its rewards takes an enormous investment. If you face license disciplinary charges from your state nursing board, then you must be deeply concerned over the prospect of losing your license and, with it, losing your nursing employment. If you have already lost your license and job, you may be facing the need to apply for unemployment benefits. You may wonder whether you can qualify for unemployment after losing your license, or you may already have received your employer's objection to your unemployment benefits application.
Retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team to advise and assist you with your nursing license defense, employment issues, and unemployment benefits concerns. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now. Consider the following helpful information on nursing license suspension, job loss, and unemployment benefits.
The Challenge of Nursing License Suspension
Having successfully represented hundreds of nurses and other professionals in license disciplinary proceedings, we recognize how daunting, damaging, and emotional nursing license suspension and related job loss can be. We are here to support you through this challenging time with the information, advice, and representation you need. Our administrative license defense attorneys have the substantial administrative law knowledge, skill, and experience to guide you through the process to your best disciplinary outcome, no matter your circumstances. Our commitment is to ensure that you feel as equipped, informed, and supported as possible throughout this difficult time and the challenges of these confusing issues and their procedures. That's why we are providing you with this exhaustive information on license suspension, job loss, and unemployment benefits.
The Varying State Laws and Procedures
We do offer one caution as you read this helpful information. Nurse licensing is a matter of state law, not national (federal) law. Nurse licensing laws vary from state to state, even while following some general patterns. Employment laws are also primarily state law, not national (federal) law. Employment laws also vary from state to state, even while following some general patterns. The same is true for unemployment benefits law--these laws vary from state to state. The information we supply here is still sound. But we encourage you to contact, retain, and consult us for our advice on your specific licensing, employment, and unemployment benefits matters.
The Risk of Nursing License Suspension
You are not alone if you face state nursing board disciplinary charges threatening your license's suspension or if you have already suffered license suspension. Thousands of nurses nationwide face license discipline, including license suspension, every year. State licensing boards routinely publish disciplinary action against nurses in public online databases. The Kansas Board of Nursing disciplinary case list is an example. State nursing boards also enter nurse license discipline in the national Nursys database for other state nursing boards to examine relative to multistate licensure. You and others can readily see how many nurses suffer license suspension and other discipline, and for what common and uncommon causes.
The Nursing License Suspension Process
It may not help you a great deal to know that you are not alone in facing license discipline or already having suffered license suspension, but it might help a little. What may help more is to know that nurses facing or suffering license suspension have protective procedures available to them. If you face license discipline or even have already suffered license suspension, retain us to identify and pursue your protective options.
Facing License Discipline
If you currently face nursing license disciplinary charges but have not yet suffered license discipline, we may be able to take the following actions to help you avoid license suspension while retaining your nursing employment:
- obtain a specification of the charges so that you understand precisely what your state nursing board alleges against you;
- help you identify, gather, and organize your exonerating evidence and mitigating information, while strategizing how best to proceed for your best outcome;
- answer your charges, setting forth your exonerating evidence, mitigating information, and legal defenses;
- request, arrange, and attend early conciliation conferences to advocate and negotiate for prompt voluntary dismissal in favor of remedial relief or restorative measures;
- invoke a formal hearing at which to present your exonerating evidence, cross-examine incriminating witnesses, and challenge adverse evidence;
- research and brief the applicable law to present your legal arguments to the hearing officer or panel, while advocating for charge dismissal or for reduced or no sanctions; and
- communicate with your nursing employer that we are responding earnestly and effectively to your disciplinary charges toward the greatest probability of prevailing.
Nursing License Already Suspended
If you have already suffered state nursing board license suspension, we may be able to take the following actions to regain your nursing license and preserve or regain your employment:
- move for reconsideration before the hearing officer or panel that issued your license suspension;
- appeal your license suspension to the higher official or panel, or state civil court, as your state nursing practice act or administrative procedure act provides;
- seek civil court review of your license suspension on constitutional due process or other constitutional, statutory, or regulatory grounds, outside of usual administrative processes;
- advocate and negotiate with an assistant attorney general, ombuds office, general counsel office, or outside retained counsel for special alternative relief restoring your nursing license; or
- move to reinstate your license on terms your state nursing practice act authorizes and on the required showing and hearing.
Nursing Board Authority to Suspend Licenses
As you deal with your license disciplinary charge, license suspension, or unemployment benefits issue, you may wonder about the extent of your state nursing board's authority to pursue charges, suspend your license, or reinstate your license. Your state legislature has adopted a nurse practice act or equivalent nursing laws that not only authorizes your state nursing board to issue your nursing license but also to suspend it. The Florida Nurse Practice Act is an example, authorizing license suspension on several disciplinary grounds. The Texas Nurse Practice Act is another example, also authorizing license suspension on multiple disciplinary grounds. Don't doubt your state nursing board's similar authority to discipline your license right up to license suspension. Instead, get our help defending disciplinary charges. If your state nursing board has already suspended your license, let us pursue avenues of appeal or special relief, as suggested above.
Nursing Board Authority to Reinstate Licenses
If your state nursing board has already suspended your license without other avenues for appeal or special relief, your state nursing practice act may authorize your license's reinstatement. State nursing practice acts vary in their reinstatement authorizations and terms or conditions for reinstatement. Some state nursing practice acts do not expressly authorize license reinstatement. Other state nursing practice acts limit reinstatement to only certain reasons for suspension. Other state nursing practice acts authorize reinstatement more broadly but require longer or shorter waiting periods and may impose special conditions. Many states permitting reinstatement require a hearing, while most or all states permitting reinstatement require an application and leave reinstatement to the state nursing board's discretion.
Section 301.467 of the Texas Nurse Practice Act is an example, permitting reinstatement of a nursing license suspended on any grounds but only after a one-year waiting period and only on application to the Texas Board of Nursing at the board's discretion. If the Texas Board of Nursing denies reinstatement, it must set another waiting period, after which the aggrieved licensee may reapply. Let us help you determine whether you are eligible for license reinstatement. License reinstatement and re-employment as a practicing nurse may be far more preferable than fighting for unemployment benefits.
Impacts of Nursing License Suspension
If you suffer a nursing license suspension, you may indeed face serious and challenging impacts. Those impacts can surely include employment termination and loss of associated employment income and benefits. Consider more on that subject below. But you may also need to know that you could lose other nursing licenses you hold in other states, licenses you hold in other allied health professions, and the opportunity for a nursing license in other states. Your one license suspension may, depending on its grounds and terms, prevent your licensure or practice in any other state, effectively ending your domestic, if not a foreign, nursing career. You are likely well aware of the corollary impacts on your personal finances and ability to support yourself and your family. Let us do what we can to help you avoid those impacts, depending on the status of your license and license proceeding, as well as your state nursing law opportunities and rights.
Employer Interests in Nursing License Suspension
Your present nursing employer, or former nursing employer if you have already suffered job termination related to your license charge or suspension, also has interests connected with your state nursing board disciplinary action. Regulatory compliance is one of those interests. Your employer must not employ unlicensed nurses to provide nursing care. Your employer could lose its own license, accreditation, or other necessary approvals for doing so and could also face regulatory fines and orders. Your employer could also face liability risks if your unlicensed nursing practice led to injuries and reputational risks if patients or others invested in your nursing facility believe that your employer should not continue to employ a nurse facing your disciplinary charges. Your employer may have to terminate your employment or, if not forced to do so, may need to do so in a balancing of interests.
On the other hand, your employer may also have good reasons to retain you. Your employer valued your nursing services enough to hire and employ you. Keeping you on could save your employer having to recruit, orient, and train your replacement, a substantial employer expense. If you only face disciplinary charges while still holding your license, we may be able to reassure your employer of your probability of beating the disciplinary charges.
If you have instead already lost your nursing license to suspension, your employer might still have good reason to continue to employ you for non-nursing practice administrative work. After all, your employer knows and presumably trusts and respects you. Your employer may also want to keep you on so that your employer can reassign you to nursing practice as soon as your license suspension ends or you gain license reinstatement. Let us help you inform and advocate with your employer for your retention, if retention is in your best interest.
Job Termination for Nursing License Suspension
All that said, job termination for your nursing license's suspension is a real and substantial probability, and may, in fact, have already occurred. Employers tend to retain nurses under individual employment contracts pursuant to their employee procedures. Only about 20% of RNs and 10% of LPNs are union members working under labor agreements. Union nurses would likely have job security under a good-cause-only job termination clause. Non-union nurses likely would not have such protection and would instead be employed at will, terminable for any lawful cause or no cause. Either way, nursing license suspension is very likely a good cause for a nurse's job termination, except on the off chance that a labor agreement requires reassignment to an open non-nursing position. In short, you may not have a contractual right to retain your nursing employment once you lose your license. You may have only limited potential rights to retain your nursing employment while facing serious disciplinary charges. Let us help you evaluate those rights.
Addressing Nursing Job Termination
If your employer has already terminated your employment, or you expect to face employment termination, you may benefit from considering some of the issues you may face. Yes, your qualifying for unemployment is one of them, discussed in detail below. However, other steps you take may be just as important or more important than doing your best to qualify for unemployment. Unemployment only pays a portion of your former working wages. And it only lasts for a limited duration. Your greater interest may be in obtaining other permanent employment. Negotiating with your employer for a positive job recommendation letter and for the designation of an employer representative who likes and respects you to give a reference for you when called by prospective employers, could help you gain the next good-paying job, never mind unemployment benefits.
Your employer may also owe you accrued vacation days, accrued personal days, accrued sick leave, and accrued retirement contributions. Your employer likely does owe you a notice of your health insurance continuation rights (a COBRA notice), disclosing the availability, terms, and costs. You may also have property to recover and remove from the workplace, including electronically stored information. You may also have email accounts, cell phone service, a leased vehicle, or other employment benefits to account for and resolve with your employer. Let us help you navigate these employment issues as we address your nursing license charges or suspension.
Concerns and Interests on Nursing Job Termination
The prior discussion begins to highlight your concerns and interests, as well as your goals and objectives, in the event of your nursing employment termination. Take a step back, for a moment, to consider your goals and objectives before diving into unemployment benefits rights. You may learn that unemployment benefits are either more or less important than you thought or that you have other ways to earn the income they would provide, and then some. Here are some of the things you may want or need to accomplish through this uncertain and potentially transitional period:
- to reduce household spending by budgeting or other means and to defer financial obligations such as retirement contributions and educational or other debt repayment;
- to increase household support by gifts, family loans, retirement or savings draws, and part-time employment, interim employment, or self-employment;
- to position yourself for re-employment in the nursing field once you regain your nursing license, if possible;
- to educate, train, and qualify yourself for other employment outside the nursing field if you are unable to regain your nursing license or do not wish to do so;
- to reassure your household and dependents of your continuing financial support, household services, and love, care, and society;
- to maintain and supplement your personal and professional networks, for job leads, transition support, friendship, and emotional support; and
- to remain physically and mentally healthy through exercise, nutrition, and responsible personal disciplines and habits. It's no time to fall apart.
Negotiating Unemployment Benefits Rights
You may or may not be entitled to unemployment benefits, depending on your state's unemployment laws and the details of your license suspension, nursing employment, and employment termination. Much more on that question appears below. But you may have one way around that question, which is to negotiate now with your employer (or former employer if already terminated) for your employer not to object to unemployment benefits.
In the unemployment benefits procedures of many states, the employer has the opportunity to object to a terminated employee's claim for unemployment benefits. If the employer does not object, unemployment agency administrative procedures may sail the claim on through for payment. In that case, as long as your application is not fraudulent, such as misrepresenting facts regarding the cause of your employment termination or circumstances of your nursing license suspension, you may be due and may receive unemployment benefits. Yes, those benefits can impose costs on your employer, which might be enough for your employer to refuse your request and instead to object to your claim. However, a sensitive presentation and negotiation with your employer may induce your employer to agree. Let us help you evaluate and pursue that approach, related to our representation of you in your license disciplinary proceeding.
The Role of Unemployment Benefits
Consider, too, the limited role of unemployment benefits relative to other public and private safety nets. Unemployment benefits are a temporary and limited bridge from one employment to another. They only pay you a portion, and perhaps a small portion, of your former employment income. They also typically last for only a relatively short period. They are also typically only available if you are searching for other employment and thus not available if other employment is available to you. In all those respects, unemployment benefits differ from Social Security disability benefits, private short-term or long-term disability insurance plans, Social Security retirement benefits, private pension plans, and private annuities or other income contracts. If you have other safety nets available to you on better terms than unemployment benefits, such as the ability to retire and start Social Security retirement benefits, then consider pursuing those better plans.
Unemployment Benefits Law
The following subsections summarize the patterns that the states' varying unemployment benefits schemes tend to follow. Your state may differ significantly with respect to these points. Let us help you with your specific state information in the course of representing you in your nursing license disciplinary matter.
Eligibility for Unemployment Benefits After Nursing Termination
To be eligible for unemployment benefits, you must generally have worked for your employer or a combination of employers full time or for a certain number of weekly hours for a certain number of months or years. Unemployment benefits depend on your record of earned employer wages. They are not generally available to self-employed contractors or others who cannot demonstrate an employment relationship and record of earned wages. Your job termination must also have been involuntary. See, for example, the eligibility requirements for Michigan unemployment benefits.
Disqualification for Unemployment Benefits After Nursing Termination
You may be disqualified from unemployment benefits if you voluntarily quit without good reason. You may also be disqualified from unemployment benefits if your employer fired you for misconduct such as an assault at work, work theft, or impaired work confirmed by a failed drug test. See, for example, the disqualification grounds for New Jersey unemployment benefits. Whether your nursing license suspension constitutes misconduct for unemployment benefits disqualification is the big question, the answer to which likely depends on the facts and circumstances of, and grounds for, your license suspension. See the detailed discussion of that subject below.
Application for Unemployment Benefits After Nursing Termination
You must also apply for unemployment benefits. Application forms are generally available online. States also still offer in-person application opportunities, with paper forms, at unemployment agency offices. See, for example, the application process for Iowa unemployment benefits. Your application must be truthful, accurate, and complete. If you misrepresent the terms of your employment termination or grounds for your nursing license suspension, for instance, you could be liable for unemployment benefits fraud and face a penalty such as repaying double or triple the benefits you received plus a potential fine, criminal charge, and incarceration.
Income Reporting for Unemployment Benefits
You must also generally report your other income while applying for or receiving unemployment benefits. Other income includes earnings, vacation pay, holiday pay, severance pay, bonus pay, and pension or retirement benefits. See, for example, the income reporting requirements for Idaho unemployment benefits.
Work Availability for Unemployment Benefits
You must also generally attest to your work availability, including your fitness and willingness to work and your diligent search for employment. Your search for employment may require you to visit job services, post resumes, pursue interviews, and preserve and show documentation of those earnest efforts. See, for example, the work availability requirement for Arizona unemployment benefits.
Nursing License Suspension as Unemployment Benefits Misconduct
Whether your nursing license suspension constitutes misconduct for purposes of unemployment benefits disqualification may be your proverbial $64,000 question. States may define misconduct in different ways. Florida, for instance, defines misconduct as either general, serious, or extreme, progressively limiting benefits under those terms. Extreme misconduct means the commission of a felony. Serious misconduct involves misdemeanors, impaired work, carelessness, injuring others, damaging property, or dishonest acts. General misconduct involves job conflicts, absences, and rule violations. Your state unemployment benefits law may have similar terms and definitions.
Nursing license suspension typically involves relatively serious grounds, many of which would clearly qualify as some level of misconduct under the above definitions, meaning that in Florida, you might well lose a portion, most, or all or nearly all of your unemployment benefits. Examples include criminal patient sexual assault, criminal drug use or theft, impaired nursing practice, and serious patient abuse or neglect. However, nursing license suspension can also occur for relatively innocent reasons, such as when a nurse fails to renew a license before its required renewal period or practices nursing without injury to patients but beyond the license's scope. Those disciplinary grounds for license suspension might not disqualify a nurse from unemployment benefits if the employer terminates on only those grounds. Likewise, if the employer terminates before license suspension or without license suspension, only on the basis of an unfounded charge later dismissed, then the nurse might not be disqualified at all from unemployment benefits. Let us help you make these interpretations in your own specific case, in the course of representing you in your nursing license disciplinary proceeding.
The Unemployment Benefits Process
The unemployment benefits process also varies from state to state. However, the following tips on common procedures may help you navigate that process. Let our attorneys provide you with information on your state's specific procedure.
Once you apply, the unemployment agency generally notifies the employer of your claim for benefits. The agency notice enables your employer to verify the employment and wage information on your application and in agency records. The agency notice also enables your employer to decide whether to object to your benefits claim. As indicated above, if the employer does not object, and the unemployment agency believes your application to be complete and to qualify you for benefits, then the agency may approve your benefits. You may thereafter receive a periodic benefits check or direct deposit to your bank account.
If, instead, your employer objects to your claim on the grounds of disqualification based on your license suspension disciplinary violation or on other grounds, then the unemployment agency may either rule the employer's objection insufficient and award you benefits or rule the employer's objection sufficient and notify you of your disqualification from benefits. In the former case, your employer may appeal your benefits approval. In the latter case, you may appeal your benefits denial. If neither side appeals, the unemployment agency decision remains. If either side appeals, your claim proceeds to an unemployment agency appeal hearing. Let us help you determine your best appeal course and response according to your specific state unemployment benefits procedures, in the course of representing you in your nursing license disciplinary proceeding.
The Unemployment Benefits Hearing
Again, unemployment agency procedures vary from state to state. But, a common procedure for appeals involves the agency's scheduling of the appeal hearing. The hearing may be in person at an unemployment agency office or by videoconference or teleconference, as the agency determines or the parties request. One party may appear in person, and the other may appear via audio or video. In any case, the appeal hearing is typically relatively informal and is conducted by an individual agency hearing official. The hearing official will state the disqualification issue and ask each side to address it. The parties are generally permitted to retain an attorney to attend and speak on their behalf at the hearing, but attorneys are not common at unemployment benefits appeals. Let us help you determine your state unemployment agency's procedures and your best course with respect to a hearing and hearing representative, in the course of representing you in your nursing license disciplinary proceeding.
Preparing for the Unemployment Benefits Hearing
You can increase your chances of prevailing in the unemployment benefits appeal hearing by taking certain steps in preparation. First, refresh yourself on your state unemployment benefits laws regarding benefits disqualification. You'll need to know your state's definition of disqualification to intelligently address your evidence, statements, and arguments to the issue. We may be able to help you research and confirm that definition, in the course of representing you in your nursing license disciplinary proceeding.
Next, you should gather any documentary evidence you have available to you that will address the benefits disqualification issue under your state unemployment benefits law's definition. That documentary evidence may include:
- the state nursing board's decision suspending your nursing license, if the decision and grounds suggest that you were innocent of misconduct as unemployment agency law defines that term;
- your responses to the state nursing board's disciplinary charges showing your innocence of the charges or your case to mitigate the suspension sanction;
- statements of any witnesses who support that you did not commit the wrong the state nursing board charged or who supported your argument for mitigation of the sanction. You may wish to bring any key witnesses, such as a co-worker, colleague, patient, or patient's representative, to the unemployment agency appeal hearing or arrange for their teleconference or videoconference attendance;
- any employer writings, texts, emails, or other records tending to acknowledge that its grounds for your job termination were out of its own interests, such as for economic reasons, reductions in workforce, or reputational or management issues or concerns, rather than because it believed that you actually committed misconduct;
- any other records, correspondence, reports, notes, diaries, journals, electronic messages or other electronically stored information, or other documentary or physical evidence tending to show that you did not commit misconduct and that your employer terminated your job for other reasons.
Finally, you should write out your own explanation that you intend to communicate to the unemployment agency appeal hearing officer so that you are confident that you can speak or testify to your best effect. The appeal hearing officer may accept your writing in lieu of or in addition to your statement or testimony.
Conduct of the Unemployment Benefits Appeal Hearing
As indicated above, the appeal hearing officer may conduct the appeal hearing in a relatively informal manner, speaking briefly at the outset and then inviting each side to speak, one at a time. Traditionally, the appealing party gets to speak first, and the responding party follows. That order means you would speak first if the initial decision denied your claim, and the employer would speak first if the initial decision approved your claim. The hearing officer then may invite the appealing party's brief rebuttal or may invite additional statements from either side, back and forth. Do not be surprised, though, if the hearing officer gives each side a few minutes to speak once and then abruptly concludes the appeal hearing without additional back and forth. Be sure that you say all that you need and wish to say at the first opportunity the appeal hearing officer gives you to speak. Don't leave disappointed that you did not make your best case.
Demeanor During the Appeal Hearing
Be sure to conduct yourself professionally, with poise and equanimity, to the extent that you are able to do so, during the appeal hearing. The appeal hearing officer may appreciate that you may be nervous, anxious, or angry at confronting an employer representative who treated you poorly in objecting to your unemployment benefits claim or in other ways. But try to control your emotions. Outbursts, insults, or other departures from customary kindnesses can result in the hearing's termination or turn the hearing officer away from your side of the argument. Especially treat the hearing officer with respect. If the hearing officer does not suggest in an introduction a title by which to call the officer, like Mr., Ms., or Magistrate, then consider addressing the hearing officer as Your Honor. Better to show greater respect than lesser respect than deserved.
Also, the employer representative who attends should be treated in a civil manner. Do not be surprised if the employer representative is someone from the human resources office whom you have never met. Also, do not be surprised if the employer representative is an owner, officer, or director whom you have met but believed had better things to do than quibble over unemployment claims. Maintain your poise. It may earn you both the hearing officer's respect and your employer representative's respect, both of which could pay you dividends then or later.
The Unemployment Benefits Appeal Result
You should receive the unemployment agency appeal hearing officer's decision in the days following your appeal hearing. The decision should be in writing and state the result and reasoning. The written decision should also describe any further review or appeal procedures your state unemployment benefits laws or administrative procedure act offers. If the decision is in your favor, you should receive benefits shortly after unless your employer takes further action to challenge the appeal decision. If the decision denies your unemployment benefits, you may have our assistance determining whether and how to proceed further, in the course of representing you in your nursing license disciplinary proceeding.
The Role of License Defense Counsel
You should appreciate from the above discussion that our highly qualified administrative license defense attorneys can play important roles in assisting you in many ways relating to your state nursing board disciplinary proceeding, dealings with your employer, and unemployment benefits claim and procedures. Let us help in whatever way we can while representing you in your license discipline proceeding. Also, rely on our highly qualified license defense attorney representation rather than an unqualified local criminal defense counsel. Get the qualified help you need and deserve.
Premier License Defense Services Available
If you are a nurse facing state nursing board disciplinary charges, risking job termination and loss of unemployment benefits, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team. We have successfully defended hundreds of nurses and other professionals in license discipline matters, including issues with job termination and unemployment. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now. Preserve and protect your license, employment, and unemployment benefits.
