Talk to an Attorney before Signing that Settlement Agreement

Nurses make mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes are big. In late 2024, an Iowa home health nurse did just that when she showed up to a patient’s house under the influence of intoxicants. She was so heavily inebriated that she blacked out, and they had to put her in an ambulance.

A complaint was filed against her, but she was allowed to continue working so long as she participated in an employee assistance program designed to help treat her for the substance abuse disorder. Unfortunately, she was back to her old habits within a month. Co-workers once again had to sound the alarm when the nurse appeared obviously intoxicated at work.

Several scenarios can play out when a nurse shows up to work inebriated, but the best path forward always includes a call to our National Professional License Defense Team. If you’re worried about your nursing license, contact the LLF National Law Firm right now online, or call 888-535-3686.

Substance Abuse Impacts Professional Licenses

Substance abuse will jeopardize your nursing license. You may not realize you have options. The good news is that the Iowa Board of Nursing, like most state nursing boards, does have resources available to nurses experiencing mental health problems or substance abuse issues. Many states have programs like Iowa’s Practitioner Health Program, which offers:

• Anonymous participation
• Intervention and rehabilitation tools
• Treatment programs and monitoring
• License reinstatement help

Although the state nursing boards offer helpful resources, they will not mess around if a complaint, especially multiple complaints, is lodged against a licensed nurse. Ultimately, the Iowa nurse in the article lost her license for a year. Whether or not she will get it reinstated is up to her efforts, but her likelihood of success vastly improves if she works with a National Professional License Defense Team.

Settlement Agreement Sacrifices

Settlement agreements might seem like a safe move, but the devil is always in the details. It’s critical to understand what the nurse gave up when she signed the settlement agreement. She gave up her right to a formal hearing or judicial review. She also gave up the right to contest any of the accusations against her.

When you’re at your lowest low, you may think you deserve the worst outcome, but you deserve to have someone advocating on your behalf regardless of the wrongful act you committed. You never want to waive any rights to a hearing or to deny the allegations against you without first speaking to our National Professional License Defense Team.

Working With the Board to Keep Your License

Although practitioner health programs, like the one offered to Iowa nurses, often provide advocacy tools to help with license reinstatement, they aren’t always sufficient. You need to work with an advocate even in the pre-accusation stage of the process, and not after you’ve entered recovery.

The experienced National Professional License Defense Team at the LLF National Law Firm provides nurses with the advocacy they deserve when defending their license. Call 888-535-3686 today or reach out online.