Let the Lento Law Firm Defend Your Virginia CNA Registration
Virginia's charming cities and towns, including the most populous Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, Arlington, and Richmond, make great places for certified nurse aides to practice. Virginia also boasts sophisticated hospitals like the state's largest hospital Inova Fairfax in Falls Church, and other large hospitals VCU Medical Center in Richmond, Carilion Roanoke Memorial in Roanoke, and the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville. You can make a great CNA job and career for yourself at any of the state's outstanding hospitals or medical facilities or in-home or other residential care around the state.
But to practice as a certified nurse aide in Virginia, you must earn and maintain in good standing the Virginia Board of Nursing's nurse aide certification. If you lose that certification to Virginia Board of Nursing disciplinary charges for personal or professional misconduct, then you'll lose your CNA job and income, and likely your nursing career. Treat license disciplinary charges seriously. Retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team to defend your Virginia nurse aide certification, whether you work and reside in Falls Church, Roanoke, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, Arlington, Richmond, or any other Virginia location. Call 888.535.3686 or chat with us now for skilled and experienced attorney representation defending your Virginia CNA license against disciplinary charges.
Virginia Nurse Aide Certification
Virginia's Board of Nursing does more than license LPNs and RNs. The Board of Nursing also certifies nurse aides or CNAs, what some other states call certified nursing assistants. Indeed, the Virginia Board of Nursing also regulates advanced certified nurse aides. Section 54.1-3005(7) of Virginia's Nurse Practice Act authorizes the Board of Nursing to “certify and maintain a registry of all certified nurse aides and to promulgate regulations consistent with federal law and regulation.” Article 4 of the Nurse Practice Act sets forth the detailed provisions for “Certification of Nurse Aides.” The first of those provisions, Section 54.1-3022, prohibits anyone from using the certified nurse aide or CNA designation unless holding the Board's certification: “No person shall use or assume the title ‘Certified Nurse Aide' or abbreviation ‘C.N.A.' or any words, letters, signs, or devices to indicate that person is a certified nurse aide unless certified by the Board.” Let our attorneys help you with any certification issues that the Board of Nursing won't resolve. You need CNA certification to work as a nurse aide in Virginia.
Virginia CNA Regulatory Authority
Virginia's Board of Nursing not only has the authority to certify nurse aides but also to regulate and discipline them. Section 54.1-3023(1) of Virginia's Nurse Practice Act authorizes the Board to certify a nurse aide only if the nurse aide “has not committed any act or omission that would be grounds for discipline or denial of certification under this article.” Similarly, Section 54.1-3007 of the Nurse Practice Act lists the grounds for discipline and sanction forms the Board of Nursing may impose on any nursing candidate or licensed or certified nurse, including certified nurse aides or CNAs. Indeed, the Board of Nursing publishes dozens of recent disciplinary actions the Board has taken against certified nurse aides, proving very real the risk of CNA discipline. Don't fool around if you face Virginia Board of Nursing CNA disciplinary charges. Promptly retain our skilled and experienced attorneys for your best outcome.
Virginia CNA Sanction Forms
Section 54.1-3007 of the Nurse Practice Act lists the sanctions that the Virginia Board of Nursing can impose on CNAs and other licensed or certified nurses in the state. Those sanctions include:
- refuse to admit a candidate to any examination;
- refuse to issue a license, certificate, or registration to any applicant;
- suspend any license, certificate, registration, or multistate licensure privilege for a stated period or indefinitely;
- revoke any license, certificate, registration, or multistate licensure privilege;
- censure or reprimand any licensee, certificate holder, registrant, or multistate licensure privilege holder; or
- place any licensee, certificate holder, registrant, or multistate licensure privilege holder on probation for such time as the board may designate.
You can see that your stakes are high, right up to losing your license to revocation or indefinite suspension. That sanction would of course mean losing your CNA employment, too. But notice that the sanctions include reprimand and probation. The Board of Nursing may also dismiss disciplinary charges in favor of other resolutions. Our skilled and experienced attorneys may be able to help you negotiate an acceptable resolution that keeps your CNA certification in good standing to avoid any interruption of your employment.
Virginia CNA Sanctioning Points
The Virginia Board of Nursing maintains a Sanctioning Reference Points Manual to guide disciplinary officials in how to punish certified nurse aides and other nurses who violate the Board's standards. Your sanction may depend on how those officials score your alleged violation. For a low sanction score, the manual permits disciplinary officials to take no action against you, impose no sanction, impose only a monetary penalty or probation, or stay a proposed suspension. You could, in other words, avoid crippling sanctions even if responsible for a violation, depending on how disciplinary officials construe your violation. The manual also authorizes officials to offer you continuing education and quarterly reporting and job evaluations in lieu of a sanction. Our attorneys may be able to help you negotiate those favorable outcomes.
Grounds for Virginia CNA Discipline
Disciplinary officials must have grounds to impose sanctions. Section 54.1-3007 of the Nurse Practice Act lists the grounds on which Virginia Board of Nursing disciplinary officials may sanction a CNA. Your notice of disciplinary investigation or formal charges should disclose to you the grounds for your investigation. Those grounds should be one or more of the following statutory grounds, not other subjective standards disciplinary officials make up and impose. As you consider these statutory grounds, see also how our Professional License Defense Team may help you defend and defeat the disciplinary charges.
Fraudulent Credentials as Grounds for Virginia CNA Discipline
Section 54.1-3007 of the Nurse Practice Act's first disciplinary grounds is “fraud or deceit in procuring or attempting to procure a license, certificate, or registration.” Credentials fraud has been the center of a nationwide nursing school fraud scandal in which the FBI alleged that thousands of nurses purchased fake credentials. Our attorneys may be able to help you if you face Virginia disciplinary charges over suspect credentials. We may be able to help you obtain documentation of your coursework, training hours, and experience to resolve credentials questions in your favor. Your ability to pass the CNA competency exam and gain and retain CNA employment may also reassure disciplinary officials of the credibility of your credentials.
Unprofessionalism as Grounds for Virginia CNA Discipline
Section 54.1-3007 of the Nurse Practice Act's next disciplinary grounds is “unprofessional conduct” or “practicing in a manner contrary to the standards of ethics or in such a manner as to make … practice a danger to the health and welfare of patients or to the public.” Professional misconduct charges can run the gamut from threats or violence toward patients or colleagues, insubordination toward supervisors, practicing while impaired, allegations of domestic violence or other personal misconduct calling your character into question, or any other action outside professional norms that disrupts the workplace, shames the profession or endangers patients. Professional misconduct charges can also be unfairly vague and ambiguous.
If you face professional misconduct charges, our attorneys may be able to help you get disciplinary officials to be more specific in their charges and to disclose any evidence they have against you. We may also be able to help you prove that you did not engage in the conduct officials allege or that you had extenuating or mitigating circumstances relating to your misconduct. You may also be able to show that you have corrected any unprofessionalism and present no future risk to patients or the profession.
Criminal Conviction as Grounds for Virginia CNA Discipline
Section 54.1-3007 of the Nurse Practice Act's next disciplinary grounds is “conviction of any felony or any misdemeanor involving moral turpitude.” Virginia felonies address everything from murder solicitation to murder, assault, sexual assault, aggravated assault, kidnapping, robbery, and arson, down to property crimes like theft, embezzlement, burglary, and criminal trespass. Misdemeanor crimes of moral turpitude include crimes of immorality like lewdness and crimes of dishonesty like criminal fraud and petty larceny. If you face CNA disciplinary charges due to your alleged criminal conviction, our attorneys may be able to show that you did not suffer a disqualifying conviction, that your conviction has been expunged, pardoned, or reversed, or that for other reasons such as your rehabilitation officials should waive the disqualification.
Impairment as Grounds for Virginia CNA Discipline
Section 54.1-3007 of the Nurse Practice Act's next disciplinary grounds is “use of alcohol or drugs to the extent that such use renders [the licensee] unsafe to practice, or any mental or physical illness rendering him unsafe to practice.” Drug or alcohol impairment is a serious issue for nurses nationwide. So are mental and physical impairments. The stresses of nursing practice can contribute to both substance abuse and mental or physical disability. Virginia's Board of Nursing thus offers nurses with addiction or disability issues a Health Practitioners' Monitoring Program. The program's purpose is to divert struggling CNAs and other nurses from disciplinary proceedings into recovery programs.
Beware the terms for diversion, though. Disciplinary officials may attempt to require you to relinquish your nurse aide certification to enter the recovery program. If you do give up your certification, the terms of your diversion may make it hard to impossible to get your certification back. Instead, retain our attorneys to help you evaluate the charges and any recovery program offer. We may be able to help you preserve your CNA license and employment even while addressing addiction or disability issues.
Abuse as Grounds for Virginia CNA Discipline
Section 54.1-3007 of the Nurse Practice Act's next disciplinary ground is patient abuse. Patient abuse charges can be daunting because they allege a deliberate and even malicious wrong. Abuse can take violent and distressing forms like hitting, biting, spitting at, yelling at, or unreasonably restraining a patient. Some disciplinary officials may also construe as abuse, neglectful actions like failing or refusing to attend to a patient's urgent requests and needs, or chronic inattention to duties resulting in patient bed sores, dehydration, malnourishment, or severe mental and emotional distress. Neglectful actions can be easier to defend than outright abusive actions if your circumstances indicate that you were not assigned to the complaining patient or that you were assigned more patients and duties than those to which you could reasonably attend. In any case, our attorneys may be able to help you present exonerating or mitigating evidence against abuse charges, eliminating or reducing any penalty.
Negligent Practice as Grounds for Virginia CNA Discipline
Section 54.1-3007 of the Nurse Practice Act's next disciplinary ground is “negligent practice.” Certified nurse aides should follow the profession's customary practices, meaning those practices in which your approved CNA program trained you and those practices other qualified CNAs follow. You could face disciplinary charges for departing from those practices, especially if your departure from those practices results in a patient's injury and complaint against you. For instance, if you attempt to lift and transfer a patient in an unconventional way, and as a result, you drop and injure the patient, then your negligent practice may result in discipline.
Our attorneys may be able to help you defend and defeat negligent practice charges if you did not engage in the practice of which disciplinary officials accuse you or if your practice fell within CNA customs and standards. CNAs may have more than one customary way in which to move, transfer, bathe, turn, medicate, and otherwise care for patients. Your conduct may have been different than what a disciplinary official with nursing experience would have done but nonetheless within the standard of care for all CNAs. We may even be able to retain a consulting expert to testify to the CNA standard of care if doing so would help your defense.
Misappropriation as Grounds for Virginia CNA Discipline
Section 54.1-3007 of the Nurse Practice Act's next disciplinary ground is “misappropriation of a patient's or resident's property.” Misappropriation charges can be a significant risk for CNAs providing residential care, where the patient's property is all about the home. Patients suffering from dementia or other mental disabilities may misplace property and misperceive events, resulting in false misappropriation charges. Patients receiving CNA home care may also have other service providers moving in and out of the home with access to misappropriate property. Disciplinary officials generally know the risk that CNAs face of false misappropriation charges. But they also know that the opportunity for misappropriation can exist.
Our attorneys may be able to help you defend and defeat misappropriation charges if you did not remove any property, others may have done so instead of you, or any property you removed was at the patient's request or the property owner's request for their benefit rather than your benefit. We may also be able to show that the complainant is an unreliable witness as to the funds and property that the complainant owns and controls.
Failure to Report as Grounds for Virginia CNA Discipline
Those are the grounds that Section 54.1-3007 of Virginia's Nurse Practice Act lists expressly for CNA and other nurse disciplines. But you could expect other potential charges falling within the above broad grounds of unprofessionalism or negligent practice. One of those charges could be your failure to report child or elder abuse, as Virginia law requires. Virginia Code Section 63.2-1509 requires nurses and other professionals coming into contact with children to report suspected child abuse. Virginia Code Section 63.2-1606 requires nurses to report suspected elder abuse. Failing to report can result in civil penalties and would be a violation of protective laws implicating unprofessional conduct. If you face failure to report charges, our attorneys may be able to show that you were not aware of the suspected abuse, you relied on your supervisor or employer to report the abuse, or that you had other exonerating or mitigating grounds.
Recordkeeping Issues as Grounds for Virginia CNA Discipline
Although Section 54.1-3007 of Virginia's Nurse Practice Act does not expressly list this ground, your failure to keep accurate records as law and competent practice requires, or your submission of false records, could also constitute unprofessionalism under the above prohibition. Submitting false or inaccurate patient records, or failing to submit adequate patient records, could result in patient injury or death. False records of your work can also lead to fraudulent Medicare and insurance billing, violating state and federal laws. False time records can violate your employer's financial rules and constitute fraud. If you face any of these disciplinary charges, our attorneys may be able to show disciplinary officials that your records were accurate and complete, that others were responsible for any inaccuracies, that you acted under the supervision and reasonable instruction of your employer, or that no endangering harm or monetary loss resulted.
Confidentiality Breaches as Grounds for Virginia CNA Discipline
Although Section 54.1-3007 of Virginia's Nurse Practice Act does not expressly list this ground, your breach of patient confidentiality could also constitute professional misconduct under the above disciplinary ground. If you face such disciplinary charges, our attorneys may be able to show that you did not make any patient confidentiality breaches, that anything you disclosed you did so for patient care, or that no harm resulted from any disclosure.
Virginia CNA Disciplinary Procedures
The Virginia Board of Nursing refers CNAs and other nurses facing disciplinary proceedings to the Virginia Administrative Process Act for hearing procedures. The Act's Article 3 addresses individual case decisions. Article 3 provides for initial informal fact-finding proceedings followed, if necessary, by a formal hearing ensuring a “full and fair disclosure of the facts.” Formal hearings involve each side's presentation of live witnesses testifying under oath and documentary evidence. Article 3 provides for party subpoenas to obtain that evidence in advance of the hearing if necessary. Article 3 expressly assures the CNA or other professional facing contested disciplinary proceedings that the professional may retain qualified attorney representation to attend all hearings, present evidence and arguments, and cross-examine witnesses. Virginia's Administrative Process Act also provides for limited court review of administrative law judges and agency decisions.
Our attorneys can help you invoke these and other Virginia Administrative Process Act rights in diplomatic and strategic manner so that you have the best chance to obtain your best outcome to CNA disciplinary charges. Identifying and acquiring evidence, presenting that evidence in an orderly and compelling fashion, researching and drafting hearing briefs, and pursuing agency and court review of adverse decisions all generally require highly technical administrative attorney skills. Do not rely on unqualified local criminal defense counsel for those skills. Instead, retain our attorneys.
Nationwide Stakes of Virginia CNA Discipline
The Virginia Board of Nursing extends reciprocity to CNAs with whom other states have licensed. Reciprocity means that the CNA already licensed in another state need not go through the CNA training and examination again in Virginia but may instead receive certification by endorsement. But reciprocity also means that if you lose your Virginia CNA certification, you lose reciprocity rights in other states. Losing your Virginia disciplinary proceeding could mean not working as a CNA anywhere in the U.S.
Premier Virginia Nurse Aide Certification Defense
The skilled and experienced attorneys on the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team are available in Falls Church, Roanoke, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, Arlington, Richmond, and any other Virginia location to defend your CNA certification against disciplinary charges. Hundreds of professionals across the nation have trusted the Lento Law Firm for successful disciplinary outcomes to their disciplinary charges. Call 888.535.3686 or chat with us now.
