State nursing boards have substantial statutory authority to impose a wide range of different forms of license discipline. If the state nursing board finds you responsible for a disciplinary charge, you may face anything from a caution, warning, reprimand, up to probation, license suspension, or license revocation. State nursing boards, though, generally have discretion to impose other forms of sanction like license restriction or limitation. They also have discretion to accept non-disciplinary remedial measures like additional education, training, evaluation, counseling, and mentoring. Don’t give up and give in to disciplinary charges. Instead, retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team to help you avoid a disciplinary sanction. Even if you committed misconduct, we may be able to negotiate and win alternative remedial relief that keeps your disciplinary record clean. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for the skilled and experienced representation you need.
State Nursing Board Disciplinary Authority
It doesn’t pay to question your state nursing board’s disciplinary authority. Disciplinary officials wield statutory authority to impose license sanctions whenever finding disciplinary grounds, among the statutory grounds that state nursing practice acts authorize. See, for example, the Arizona Nurse Practice Act, authorizing the Arizona Board of Nursing to impose license discipline as it best determines. See, for another example, the Missouri Nurse Practice Act, likewise authorizing the Missouri Board of Nursing to impose license discipline. Common grounds for nurse license discipline, for which our attorneys stand ready to defend you, include:
- incompetence in nursing practice;
- gross negligence in nursing practice;
- patient abuse or neglect;
- disrespect or insubordination toward physicians and supervisors;
- unfitness for nursing practice because of substance abuse;
- unfitness for nursing practice because of mental impairment;
- unfitness for nursing practice because of physical impairment;
- errors in patient or facility recordkeeping;
- altering or destroying patient records;
- drug diversion;
- theft of patient or facility property;
- assault or threats toward patients or colleagues;
- exposure of patients to disease by lack of infection control;
- practice outside the scope of the nursing license;
- delegating nursing practice to unlicensed individuals;
- failure to adequately supervise in the delegation of care;
- credential fraud in obtaining the license;
- discipline by another jurisdiction;
- other unprofessional conduct.
State Nursing Board Disciplinary Sanctions
If your state nursing board finds that you committed misconduct, the board likely has broad discretion to impose a range of progressive sanctions. State nursing practice acts tend to enumerate common sanctions while also authorizing the state nursing board to impose whatever other sanction the board discerns is most appropriate. The Missouri Nurse Practice Act already referenced above, for example, authorizes license suspension, license revocation, license limitation or restriction, or submission for evaluation, treatment, counseling, testing, and monitoring. Pennsylvania’s Nurse Practice Act likewise authorizes license discipline, including suspension and revocation. The Ohio Nurse Practice Act is an example that authorizes not only suspension and revocation but also fines or other discipline of the board’s choosing. While the broad range of sanctions may be intimidating, that same discretion gives our attorneys the leeway to argue for a case in mitigation of sanctions. We can, in other words, ask your state nursing board to impose no sanction or a lesser sanction that preserves your license, even if the board finds that you committed a wrong.
State Nursing Board Severe Disciplinary Sanctions
You obviously have a strong interest in avoiding the more severe forms of disciplinary sanction. Any sanction that interrupts your ability to continue your nursing practice is a severe sanction because you can lose your employment and practice. License suspension and license revocation are severe sanctions. Unfortunately, if you do not respond to your disciplinary charges or make only a modest effort at a response, license suspension is the default sanction for some state nursing boards. If you don’t care enough to defend your license appropriately, then why should the state nursing board let you retain it? License suspension grabs the accused nurse’s attention. License suspension may be for a month, six months, a year, some other period, or indefinitely. License revocation removes the license without expectation of its return, even if the state’s nursing practice act permits license reinstatement after a waiting period, application, and board approval. Don’t risk a severe disciplinary sanction. Get our help.
State Nursing Board Lesser Disciplinary Sanctions
License suspension and revocation are not the only sanctions or even the most common sanctions, depending on the charge and defense. State nursing practice acts also authorize warnings, oral or written reprimands, license restriction, license limitation, and even fines and other moderate or minor sanctions at the state nursing board’s discretion. The Ohio Nurse Practice Act is an example that authorizes not only suspension and revocation but also license restriction or limitation and fines or other discipline of the board’s choosing. Notice that none of these lesser disciplinary sanctions necessarily interrupt your nursing practice. You could well retain your nursing employment and continue to care for your nursing patients, even after suffering these lesser forms of discipline. License limitation, for instance, may be to your present nursing facility and restriction to your present nursing practices and level of supervision. Let us advocate for no sanction and, if the state nursing board insists on some sanction, then for lesser sanctions that let you retain your license and employment.
State Nursing Board Non-Disciplinary Actions
State nursing boards, though, don’t have to impose punitive discipline in every case in which they find nursing misconduct. State nursing boards have a much wider range of alternative measures that they may be willing to accept, which the nursing practice acts don’t necessarily reveal. Our attorneys know the remedial measures that state nursing boards may accept as an alternative to punitive sanctions. We also know how to make the best possible case for the board to accept those alternative measures, especially ones that you have already performed or can readily perform without substantial burden. Indeed, remedial measures can be good for your nursing record, network, reputation, and skills when properly arranged. Remedial measures may include:
- additional nursing education;
- additional nursing training;
- an additional nursing credential;
- mentoring by a distinguished nurse;
- evaluation for mental impairment;
- evaluation for physical impairment;
- evaluation for substance addiction and dependency;
- monitoring by individual or panel;
- reporting to an individual, service, or board;
- drug testing by a service; and
- volunteer professional service.
Let us help you determine the remedial measures that would most benefit you, that you can most readily perform, and that will most likely convince your state nursing board to forgo punitive sanctions. And then let us negotiate and advocate for the board’s adoption of those measures in lieu of disciplinary charges, hearing, and sanctions. That outcome may be a resounding win for you.
State Nursing Board Disciplinary Factors
We can also help you make the best case to diminish any sanction that your state nursing board determines to apply. If the state nursing board refuses to negotiate an acceptable settlement and instead proceeds to a hearing, we can still advocate for no sanction or for a lesser sanction by putting on a convincing case to mitigate sanctions. Factors may include your strong work record, your clean disciplinary record, but for the current charge, the strong support of your patients, your employer’s desire to continue your employment, your colleagues’ endorsement, and that you took responsibility for the allegations and completed rehabilitative measures on your own. We may also be able to show that your alleged misconduct occurred under short staffing, excessive work demands and overload, a lack of facility training and equipment, inadequate staff support, conflicting instructions and procedures, and deluded or otherwise difficult patients making unreasonable demands. Whatever your best case is for mitigating sanctions, we can advocate it to the best effect.
State Nursing Board Disciplinary Procedures
Your state nursing board must provide you with disciplinary procedures adequate for us to invoke to make your defense case. You generally have a constitutional right to due process in a state nursing board proceeding to restrict or revoke your nursing license. See, for example, the Missouri Nurse Practice Act already referenced above, expressly recognizing that the Board of Nursing must provide accused nurses with due process. Due process means fair notice of the disciplinary charges and a fair opportunity to present your defense case before an impartial decision maker. But you must invoke those due process rights to receive their protections. We can request the disciplinary hearing, obtain the attendance of your defense witnesses, present their testimony and your defense exhibits, and challenge the evidence and witnesses against you, all for your best hearing outcome. Just because you face charges doesn’t mean that you’ll face a disciplinary sanction. Let us help you defend and defeat the charges.
State Nursing Board Post-Hearing Relief
Don’t give up if you have already lost your disciplinary charges after a formal hearing. Even if you have already suffered a license suspension or revocation, you may have an appeal available to you to reverse the finding or reduce the sanction. The Missouri Nurse Practice Act just cited above, for an example, includes rights of appeal. Other states rely on their administrative procedure acts providing for appeals either to the full state nursing board, another higher official or panel, or straight to the state’s civil courts. Civil court review may also be available, especially if the administrative procedure has violated your due process rights. Our attorneys have the skills and experience to pursue your appeals and rights to civil court review to the best of their ability. Don’t give up. Let us help you exhaust all available avenues for relief until we obtain your best possible disciplinary outcome.
Defending Nursing Board Disciplinary Charges
You may indeed have a valid and reliable defense to your disciplinary charges. Just because your state nursing board pursues formal disciplinary charges against you doesn’t mean that the board has substantial evidence of your wrongdoing. We may be able to show in your successful defense that the board has no evidence on a material element of the charge. The complaining witness may have misidentified you for another nurse who actually committed the wrong. The complaining witness may have been a deluded patient, a mistaken family member, a colleague covering up for the colleague’s own wrong, or a supervisor unlawfully retaliating against you for threatening to report a violation of law, rule, or regulation.
We may alternatively be able to show through a forensic nursing consultant that your conduct met the nursing standard of care. You may have acted on the direction and instruction of the attending physician or a nurse supervisor, giving you a safe harbor in which to proceed as you did. You may not have had the nefarious intention that the complaining witness attributed to you and may instead have acted innocently out of your own misunderstanding of the circumstances. We may be able to prove these or other defenses through documents, witness testimony, or forensic consultants. And we also have the opportunity to make a case in mitigation out of your own extenuating circumstances and good record.
Qualifications of Defense Counsel
Making a case in mitigation of disciplinary sanctions takes a sensitive and strategic hand. You neither want to admit too much nor too little, nor offer too much or too little. Our attorneys have the substantial skill and experience to know how to thread the mitigation needle. Do not retain an unqualified local criminal defense counsel or civil litigation attorney. Get our skilled and experienced help.
Premier Nursing License Defense Available
If you face state nursing board disciplinary charges and are duly concerned about the prospect of a crippling sanction, retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team to help you avoid discipline and mitigate any sanction. Our highly qualified attorneys have helped hundreds of nurses and other healthcare professionals defend and defeat licensing board disciplinary charges. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our premier representation.