For a nurse facing state board disciplinary charges, an offer of probation in lieu of license suspension or revocation can sound like a generous and fair offer. But if you understand what probation can mean, then you might not think that the offer is so generous and fair. Indeed, taking the state board’s settlement offer of probation may turn out to be a very bad move in any number of cases. If you face state nursing board disciplinary charges, beware of offers of probation. Instead, retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team to help you evaluate the probation offer against your better options. Let us help you negotiate a better resolution or defend and defeat your disciplinary charges at a board hearing. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for the skilled and experienced representation you need.
The General Meaning of Probation
Probation has a common meaning in legal proceedings of all kinds. Probation is a disciplinary special status imposed against an accused individual in a legal proceeding of some kind. Probation indicates that the accused individual warrants a special disciplinary potential but nothing more at this time. Probation warns the accused individual and anyone dealing with the individual that the individual is a special violation risk. Probation generally leaves the accused individual free to do as the individual pleases, as long as the individual meets all requirements and standards of the law. But if the accused individual commits an offense while on probation, the fact of the probation may trigger a disciplinary action, speed the action’s prosecution, and increase the disciplinary penalty. You don’t want to be on probation relative to any legal proceeding because your reputation is already tarnished, and you face a special discipline risk. Let us help you avoid probation, if at all possible, in your state nursing board disciplinary case.
The Meaning of State Nursing Board Probation
You especially shouldn’t want to be on the state nursing board probation. Criminal court probation for, say, a vehicular offense is embarrassing enough. In that case, you must be especially careful not to commit another vehicular offense, or you might lose your driver’s license, pay a fine, or suffer similar consequences. But in the case of state nursing board probation, your nursing reputation, practice, job, and career are at risk. State nursing board probation means that the board has found sufficient factual basis for your unfitness, incompetence, or danger as a nurse, to enter discipline against your license, even if the discipline is “only” probation. State nursing board probation also means that if you slip up in any way in your nursing practice, the fact that you are already on probation may mean a swift complaint, disciplinary charge, hearing, and license suspension or revocation. Avoid probation, if you can. Retain our attorneys to negotiate a better resolution or to defend and defeat your disciplinary charge entirely.
Progressive State Nursing Board Discipline
State nursing board probation is indeed a huge risk to your nursing practice. You won’t generally get probation twice, in two successive disciplinary cases. Your probation is instead clearly an indicator that your state nursing board has prepared to impose progressive discipline on you. State nurse practice acts routinely authorize state nursing boards to impose a range of progressive discipline from caution, warning, or reprimand, and on to probation, license suspension, and license revocation. See, for example, the Missouri Nurse Practice Act authorizing the Missouri State Board of Nursing to suspend, revoke, or condition a license, place a licensee on probation, or impose “any other encumbrance” that the State Board deems appropriate. Your state nurse practice act will surely do likewise for your state nursing board. When the state board puts you on probation, the state board is telling you that the next discipline will be progressively more severe, indeed likely a license suspension or revocation, because those are the only two forms of discipline clearly more serious than probation. Don’t suffer probation. Instead, get our help defending and defeating your disciplinary charge.
The Reputational Impact of Probation
Your concern over probation shouldn’t just be that it may lead to license suspension or revocation if you get accused of making another mistake in your nursing practice. Probation itself harms your nursing reputation, relationships, and career. Probation, although not a license suspension or revocation, is still discipline. Indeed, one purpose of probation is to warn not only you but also your patients, colleagues, facility, employer, and others that you are a disciplinary risk. Your employer may fire you now just for your probation, to avoid the employer’s own reputational, regulatory, and liability risks. It might not look good for your employer to employ a nurse already disciplined and on probation, especially if that nurse makes another mistake. Your probation impacts your reputation. Get our help to avoid probation and those negative impacts.
Professional Network Impacts of Probation
Your probation can also hurt your reputation within your professional network, which may mean more to you than you realize. Whether you realize it or not, you depend on your professional network for your sense of identity, confidence, and support. You may also depend on your professional network for job guidance, advancement, recommendations, and references. You may also need your professional network to open doors to teaching, leadership, and other professional opportunities in the future. If you accept state nursing board probation as a term or condition of settling your disciplinary charges, you may be closing all those doors. Your professional network may no longer be a source of encouragement but instead a source of embarrassment, isolating you professionally. Don’t underestimate the adverse impact of probation on your professional identity and network. Get our help to defend and defeat your disciplinary charge.
Probation with Terms and Conditions
Your state nursing board may also impose terms and conditions in connection with your probation, further increasing your disciplinary risks. State nurse practice acts generally expressly or impliedly authorize state nursing boards to impose probation with terms and conditions. See, for example, the Missouri Nurse Practice Act already cited above, which expressly authorizes the Missouri State Board of Nursing to impose monitoring and limitation of the disciplined nurse’s practice, as a condition of probation. See, for another example, the Iowa Nurse Practice Act authorizing the Iowa Board of Nursing to impose probation and add conditions on restoration of an unrestricted license. Common conditions include not only monitoring and reporting but also restriction to a certain facility, limitation on permitted nursing practices, requirement of additional supervision, requirement for counseling, frequent drug testing, and the ubiquitous requirement to comply with all nursing standards, customs, and rules. These additional terms and conditions can trigger new violations. Missing a drug test appointment or counseling session, for instance, could lead to new disciplinary charges and a license suspension or revocation. Beware probation with terms and conditions. Get our defense help.
State Board Consent Agreements for Probation
State nursing boards commonly use probation when negotiating consent agreements with nurses facing disciplinary charges. A consent agreement settles a disciplinary charge on whatever terms the agreement recites. The accused nurse signs the consent agreement. The state nursing board then approves the consent agreement and enters a consent order repeating the agreement’s terms. You are then under an order for probation and whatever other terms the agreement stated. If you violate those terms, you’ve violated a nursing board disciplinary order, which is itself a new disciplinary violation, no matter how serious or nominal your underlying conduct may have been. That’s another reason not to accept probation because of the risk of violating an order incorporating the probationary terms.
The Coercive Nature of Probation Offers
Avoiding probation may well be possible. We understand that when the state nursing board presents you with a consent agreement imposing probation, the board can make its offer look very attractive. Board officials may present the offer as take-it-or-leave-it, meaning non-negotiable. They may also say that you’ll likely suffer a license suspension or revocation if you reject the non-negotiable offer. Indeed, a “consent” agreement is not truly consensual at all. State nursing boards plainly coerce accused nurses into accepting consent agreements by threatening to fully prosecute the pending disciplinary charge. The disciplinary charge itself makes the consent agreement non-consensual. The way that you reverse the coercive effect, though, is to retain our attorneys. When you retain our attorneys, you show board officials that you are fully capable of preparing a defense that may well lead to defeat and dismissal of the charges, and that you are no longer subject to the coercive sway of nursing board charges and threats.
Better Alternatives to Probation
While our attorneys will prepare your defense as if going to a hearing, our preparation may alone convince state nursing board officials to offer a settlement that does not include probation. Our goal when negotiating settlements of disciplinary charges is always to avoid any discipline, even probation. Discipline not only harms your reputation and puts your job at risk; it also increases your discipline risk. In too many cases, discipline in the form of probation leads to more discipline in the form of license suspension or revocation. Thus, we instead propose remedial measures as an alternative to probation. We show nursing board officials that remedial measures are better than probation. Probation does nothing but warn you not to commit another violation. By contrast, remedial measures can educate, train, counsel, and mentor you away from violation risks.
The Value of Remedial Measures over Probation
We can work with you to determine the remedial measures you have already completed or can readily complete and that may benefit your career in any case, outside of the disciplinary hearing. We won’t propose any remedial measure that burdens you, increases your disciplinary risk, or harms your reputation. Remedial measures should instead build your reputation, increase your employer’s confidence, improve your knowledge and skills, and promote your relationships and career success. We may be able to help you arrange nurse mentor relationships, nursing leadership and learning opportunities, nurse volunteer service opportunities, and similar professional development measures that you might pursue even if you were not in a disciplinary proceeding. Let us help you advocate and negotiate for remedial measures over useless, harmful, and risky probation.
Steps to Take to Avoid Probation
In summary, the first step to avoid probation that harms your reputation and increases your future discipline risk is not to sign any consent agreement. Instead, promptly retain and consult our attorneys. Share the state board’s proposed consent agreement with us. Let us help you identify your defense evidence and evaluate the disciplinary charges. Authorize us to communicate a settlement proposal to board officials that includes remedial measures that will meet the board’s concerns, while promoting your knowledge, skills, and career. And let us help you answer the disciplinary charges, raise your defenses, and prepare for a board hearing, as the best way to influence a better consent agreement and settlement than one that includes probation.
Probation as a Last Resort
All that said, probation may in some cases be an appropriate resolution of a difficult case. Some disciplinary charges are so serious and backed by such substantial evidence that the risk of license suspension or revocation is high. But just don’t let state nursing board officials convince you that it’s your case. They have a conflict of interest when advising you. They want you to settle your charge so that they don’t have to prepare for a hearing. Get our independent and experienced advice and representation.
Premier Nursing License Defense Available
If you face state nursing board disciplinary charges but have an offer of probation, retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team to help you evaluate the offer and negotiate or win a better resolution. Our highly qualified attorneys have helped hundreds of nurses and other healthcare professionals favorably resolve, defend, and defeat license board disciplinary charges. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for the skilled representation you need.