Nurses facing a disciplinary inquiry from their state nursing board can understandably fear the potential consequences of what could be coming. Nurses generally know that their licensing board can initiate a disciplinary proceeding that leads to the suspension or revocation of their license. A nurse may thus have every natural inclination to ignore the inquiry, as if ignoring the inquiry will make it go away. But it won’t. Indeed, ignoring a state nursing board inquiry may ensure that disciplinary charges follow. If you face your state nursing board’s inquiry, promptly retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team. We can help you respond not only timely and accurately but also affirmatively in the best way to minimize your risk of disciplinary charges. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our highly qualified and reassuring representation. Don’t ignore your state nursing board’s inquiry.
State Nursing Board Inquiry Authority
Don’t doubt your state nursing board’s statutory authority to initiate an inquiry into your fitness, competence, and safety for nursing practice. Your state nurse practice act surely authorizes your state nursing board not only to issue your license but also to investigate your license discipline, while requiring you to respond to the board’s inquiry. See, for example, the Kansas Nurse Practice Act authorizing the Kansas Board of Nursing to initiate an investigation into whether a nurse violated one of the many disciplinary grounds the Act lists. State nurse practice acts nationwide have similar disciplinary provisions. A large part of what a state nursing board does is to investigate license applicants and licensees for suspected misconduct, whether based on a patient or public complaint, or on the nursing board’s own information. Don’t ignore your state board’s inquiry, and don’t assume that your state board will forget or ignore its own inquiry. Instead, get our help to promptly and properly respond.
Duty to Cooperate with a Nursing Board Inquiry
A state nursing board disciplinary inquiry is not like a criminal investigation. You have no privilege against self-incrimination in a state nursing board proceeding. Licensure is a privilege, not a right. One condition of that privilege is to cooperate in a disciplinary inquiry. See, for example, the Minnesota Nurse Practice Act specifically requiring a nurse to cooperate with a Board of Nursing inquiry. The Minnesota Nurse Practice Act defines the duty to cooperate to include not only “responding fully and promptly to any question raised by or on behalf of the board relating to the subject of the investigation” but also to providing patient records and other records in the nurse’s possession, assisting the board’s investigation, and appearing at board conferences and hearings. The Minnesota Nurse Practice Act expressly incorporates the statutory duty to cooperate into the grounds for discipline under the Act. Fail to cooperate, and you could face discipline on that ground alone if your state has a provision similar to the Minnesota provision. Instead, let us help you respond to your disciplinary inquiry.
Discipline for Failure to Respond to a Board Inquiry
If, as in the case of Minnesota, your state nurse practice act includes a duty to cooperate and lists a failure to cooperate among its disciplinary grounds, then your failure to respond to a board inquiry could lead to disciplinary charges. And disciplinary charges could lead to license suspension or revocation and all attendant job, career, and reputational loss. Put simply, fail to respond to a board inquiry, and you could lose your license. Even if your state nurse practice act does not expressly impose a duty to cooperate with a board inquiry, it may include other catch-all grounds for discipline that could reach a failure to cooperate. See, for example, the Florida Nurse Practice Act provision on discipline, including “unprofessionalism” as a ground for discipline. Unprofessionalism and violation of state nursing board orders relating to a disciplinary proceeding are common catch-all provisions that may reach a failure to respond to a board inquiry. Don’t risk disciplinary charges for failure to respond to a board inquiry. Get our skilled and experienced help responding.
Sanctions for Failure to Respond to a Board Inquiry
Once your state nursing board finds that you committed misconduct, it may impose a sanction up to license suspension or revocation. See, for example, the Florida Nurse Practice Act disciplinary provision just cited, authorizing a full range of sanctions. While a failure to respond to a board disciplinary inquiry may seem like a minor procedural infraction, not nearly as serious as patient abuse or neglect, brief suspensions of thirty days are often a presumed penalty for failure to respond to a disciplinary inquiry or charge. Your state nursing board, in other words, may not take so kindly to your ignoring its inquiry. If it can’t trust you to respond to an inquiry, it may determine that it cannot trust you to comply with its other standards and rules. Get our help responding timely, accurately, and comprehensively to your state board inquiry. We may be able to aid your defense with a proper response.
Default for Failure to Respond to a Board Inquiry
A disciplinary charge and sanction for failure to cooperate isn’t your only disciplinary risk if you fail to respond to a state board inquiry. You may also face a default if you fail to respond to an actual disciplinary charge. A default means that your state nursing board may accept the charges against you as true, given your failure and refusal to deny the charge. The board may then proceed to impose a disciplinary sanction consistent with the alleged wrong, even if you did not in fact commit it and would have had a defense if you had answered the charge. See, for example, the California Board of Registered Nursing’s default procedure requiring a nurse to notify the board of the intention to defend after the board serves notice of the disciplinary charge. The nurse must also attend the hearing or suffer default. Under California’s default procedure, not only does the Board deem all allegations to be true, but the Board also holds that a “default decision normally results in a revocation of the RN’s license.” Beware default. Don’t ignore an inquiry or charge. Instead, promptly retain us to notify the board of your intention to defend the charge.
Collateral Impacts of Sanctions for Failure to Respond
You can see, then, that a license suspension or revocation is a potential sanction for your failure to respond or your default for not answering a formal disciplinary charge. Don’t underestimate the collateral impacts of a license suspension or revocation, or even of a lesser sanction like reprimand. You could lose your job, even if you don’t lose your license. Your employer may not want to run the liability and reputational risk of continuing to employ a sanctioned nurse. Your patients may abandon your practice, not trusting your care. And your professional network may retreat, declining to provide you with job references and recommendations. You could lose not only your job but also your nursing career. Don’t face such severe collateral consequences if you can possibly avoid them. Retain us to advocate and negotiate for your best possible disciplinary outcome.
Defenses to a Failure to Respond
Just because you fail to respond or even default by not answering your disciplinary charges does not necessarily mean that you must or will suffer a disciplinary sanction. Default and disciplinary sanctions are not necessarily automatic. State nursing boards retain the discretion to assign an appropriate penalty according to all circumstances. Even in California’s case, where the Board of Registered Nursing has a clear default policy and presumed default sanction of revocation, the Board states expressly that the Board’s “members may vote to adopt or reject a default decision, or discuss it further before making a final decision.” We may be able to raise a good defense to a failure to cooperate sanction or a default sanction. You may, for instance, have suffered a mental disability, severe family stress, physical illness, or other emergency circumstance discouraging or preventing your response. You may not have received the inquiry or may have misunderstood its import, based on poor and uninformed advice you received from unqualified others. You may even have believed that you had a privilege against self-incrimination. Let us raise and advocate for your defenses to a sanction if you have already defaulted or failed to cooperate.
Remedial Measures as an Alternative to Sanctions
Another approach our attorneys commonly take, where the state nursing board has substantial grounds on which to discipline a nurse, is to present an option for remedial measures over punitive sanctions. When a nurse ignores a state nursing board disciplinary inquiry, the board must generally do something. The board cannot simply ignore the nurse’s failure to respond. When you retain us in that instance, we can propose to the state nursing board the kind of remedial measure that we know from experience the board is likely to accept. The board may, for instance, accept your apology, assurance of future compliance, willingness to accept a distinguished nurse mentor, and some appropriate act of professional service, such as a speaking event supporting a state nursing board enforcement initiative. Your goal should be to avoid any punitive sanction, even a reprimand or probation but especially a suspension of any kind that can stain your clean record and affect your future employment or prospects for professional advancement.
The Nursing Board’s Goal in a Default Case
Keep in mind the state nursing board’s goal in any case in which a nurse fails to answer an inquiry or disciplinary charge. The statutory responsibility of a state nursing board is to protect patients and the public. When a nurse ignores a board inquiry, the board rightly has concerns over whether the nurse is fit and competent for practice, or instead a danger. The board also needs assurances that the nurse respects board rules, standards, and requirements. Our response to your alleged failure to respond and cooperate will focus on those board interests. If we cannot show the board that you can meet its concerns, then you may not deserve the remedial relief you seek. The easiest way to avoid sanctions for failure to respond is to respond in a timely manner. But if you have already failed to respond, let us investigate to see whether we may be able to raise exigent circumstances to show the board that, under ordinary circumstances, you would have responded. And let us design remedial measures that assure the board of your respect for its function and role.
Qualifications of License Defense Counsel
When deciding how to respond to your state nursing board’s disciplinary inquiry, do not retain unqualified local criminal defense counsel, a local transactional attorney who does not have administrative law knowledge, or a local personal injury attorney who doesn’t practice under administrative procedures. The law, rules, and procedures differ between a civil or criminal court and an administrative agency. So do the customs, conventions, and expectations. Court attorneys can be like fish out of water in an administrative hearing, under a hearing’s relaxed evidentiary rules and procedures. Your defense benefits not just from our substantial administrative skill and experience but also from our national reputation and relationships among state attorneys general’ nursing board officials, and administrative law judges. When you retain our attorneys, you get the best possible professional license defense.
Premier Defense Representation Available
If you are a nurse facing your state nursing board’s disciplinary inquiry, your best move is to promptly retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team to respond to the inquiry. We have helped hundreds of nurses and other healthcare professionals nationwide effectively respond to disciplinary inquiries and charges. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our skilled and experienced representation.