State nursing boards expect nurses whom they discipline to comply with the board’s disciplinary terms and conditions set forth in the board’s disciplinary order. Violate your state nursing board’s disciplinary order, and you should expect the consequences described below. But don’t get to the point of failing to comply with your state nursing board’s disciplinary order. Instead, retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team to help you address and resolve your non-compliance issue before it further affects your nursing license. You have too much to lose through disciplinary non-compliance. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for the skilled and experienced representation you need to favorably resolve your potential non-compliance issue.
State Nursing Board Disciplinary Authority
You may find it helpful to get one thing straight at the outset, when considering the impact of failing to comply with a state nursing board disciplinary decision: state nursing boards have substantial legislative authority for their actions. State nursing practice acts create state nursing boards expressly to license nurses and discipline nursing licenses. See, for example, the Montana Nurse Practice Act, authorizing the Montana Board of Nursing to issue and discipline licenses. Your state will have a similar nursing practice act authorizing your state nursing board to do likewise. Thus, don’t treat your state nursing board’s disciplinary order as if it were some form of private notice or invitation. Rather, treat your disciplinary decision as you would any other government order, backed by the force and authority of law. Get our help with your compliance issue rather than risk flouting your state nursing board’s authority. Your state nursing board won’t take your non-compliance kindly.
The Nature of State Nursing Board Discipline
As indicated above, state nursing boards routinely expect nurses whom they discipline to comply with the disciplinary terms and conditions stated in the board’s disciplinary order. Orders of discipline are orders, not suggestions. A state nursing board may be a state executive agency, not a court in the judicial branch of government, where courts act by issuing orders and judgments. But state agencies can also issue orders, albeit administrative orders rather than judicial orders. But administrative orders, decisions, and rulings are still official government actions, carrying the weight of law. And because state nursing board orders are government orders, state nursing boards can find the authority and resources to enforce their disciplinary orders, one way or another. Don’t risk non-compliance with your state nursing board disciplinary decision. Instead, get our help with your compliance issue.
Enforcement of State Nursing Board Orders
If you violate your state nursing board’s disciplinary decision, your state nursing board may take any number of different actions, depending on the nature of your discipline and the nature of your non-compliance. If, for instance, your discipline involved suspension or revocation of your nursing license, and you have not yet gained your license’s reinstatement, then you must curtail your nursing practice. If, instead, you continue your nursing practice, violating the disciplinary order, your state nursing board may sue for a civil injunction enforceable by contempt sanctions, including fines and jail. Alternatively, your state nursing board may refer your non-compliance to a state assistant attorney general for criminal prosecution.
See, for example, the Alabama Nurse Practice Act, making the unauthorized practice of nursing on a suspended or revoked license subject to court injunction. See also the Texas Nurse Practice Act, making unauthorized practice and other violations of disciplinary orders subject to a civil penalty of $1,000 per violation and criminal Class A misdemeanor charges punishable by up to one year in jail and a $4,000 fine. Thus, if you fail to comply with your disciplinary order suspending or revoking your license, and you instead continue your nursing practice, your state nursing practice act may expose you to substantial civil penalties and even criminal charges punishable with a jail term. Do not risk non-compliance. Get our help.
Other Potential Consequences of Non-Compliance
State nursing boards have other options, beyond civil penalties, court injunctions, and criminal prosecution and conviction, to enforce their disciplinary decisions. Many failures to comply involve the terms and conditions of disciplinary orders. You may not have lost your license under your disciplinary decision. But your state nursing board may, for instance, have restricted your license to certain patients, practices, facilities, or supervision. See, for example, the Texas Nurse Practice Act authorizing the Texas Board of Nursing to restrict a nurse’s license to specified activities and practices, as an alternative to license suspension or revocation. License restrictions may protect vulnerable patient populations, avoid drug diversion, and reduce nursing practice risks around dangerous procedures.
If you violate your disciplinary decision restricting your license to certain patients, practices, facilities, or supervision, your state nursing board may pursue a civil injunction to hold you in contempt of court for your next such violation. Your nursing board may alternatively impose fines for unauthorized practice. But a more common and ready-made sanction may be that the state nursing board goes ahead and imposes license suspension or revocation. Violating an order of discipline is a common ground for additional discipline up to license suspension or revocation. Indeed, the first disciplinary ground the above Texas Nurse Practice Act authorizes is violation of a Texas Board of Nursing order. If a first sanction doesn’t do the trick, a more serious sanction may. Don’t risk non-compliance. Don’t make your discipline even worse than it already is. Instead, get our help addressing your compliance issue.
Detecting Failure to Comply with Board Discipline
You may wonder who will detect your non-compliance with your disciplinary decision. Beware of following a detection ethic. The risks are too great, and the stresses can be even greater. Instead, assume that state nursing board officials know or will promptly discover any non-compliant action you take. Indeed, when you seek reinstatement of your unrestricted license, a condition may well be that you attest under penalty of perjury that you have not violated your disciplinary restrictions. Don’t get yourself into hotter water than you already are. Rather, comply with your disciplinary restrictions. Otherwise, your patients and their family members or your colleagues, employer representatives, facility representatives, and others may feel an obligation or duty to report your non-compliance, if you don’t find yourself having to admit your non-compliance yourself.
Better Alternatives than Non-Compliance
You may have good alternatives to non-compliance. State nursing practice acts include several procedural and substantive forms of relief that our attorneys may be able to invoke on your behalf so that you do not feel compelled or tempted to violate your disciplinary decision. Those options may include the following.
Petition to Modify the Disciplinary Decision
State nursing practice acts, nursing board administrative rules, or administrative procedure acts may expressly or impliedly authorize a petition to modify a disciplinary decision because of its peculiar unfairness. See, for example, the Texas Nurse Practice Act, which expressly authorizes the Texas Board of Nursing to modify the terms of disciplinary probation. Your order of disciplinary probation may, for instance, have mistakenly imposed onerous testing, monitoring, or reporting requirements, or those requirements may no longer serve their purpose. Let us move to modify your disciplinary decision if your circumstances have changed and you need relief from its terms and conditions.
Petition for Reconsideration or Rehearing
State nursing practice acts, nursing board administrative rules, or administrative procedure acts often authorize petitions for reconsideration or rehearing of the disciplinary decision. If you find yourself compelled or tempted to violate your disciplinary decision, the decision may have some fundamental unfairness or error in it that your state nursing board should correct. You may alternatively have discovered new evidence that warrants a reversal of your discipline. Retain us to investigate and pursue reconsideration or rehearing.
Appeal of Disciplinary Decision
Another option for your relief from the term or condition with which you are unable to comply, or with which you find it unreasonably difficult to comply, is to appeal the disciplinary decision. You may still have time to appeal the decision, either to address the error in the finding of discipline or correct the inequity of the sanction. State nursing practice acts routinely offer an appeal from an erroneous disciplinary decision. See, for example, the Virginia Board of Nursing’s appeal process, providing an appeal from the Board of Nursing to the state’s circuit courts. Appeals may go from the nursing board to the civil courts, as in Virginia, from a hearing panel or official to the full state nursing board, or from an administrative law judge to the nursing board or vice versa, depending on your state’s law and administrative procedures. Let us help you determine the correct appeal route and grounds and pursue relief through an effective appeal.
Petition for License Reinstatement
State nursing practice acts also commonly authorize petitions for reinstatement of a suspended license or even of a revoked license. See, for example, the Alabama Board of Nursing’s process for reinstatement of a revoked or suspended license. See also the Texas Nurse Practice Act, likewise authorizing license reinstatement. If your temptation not to comply with your disciplinary decision involves the unfairness of not gaining license reinstatement, then let us help you pursue prompt reinstatement with an appropriate showing of your compliance and rehabilitation.
Addressing Your Non-Compliance Issue
You’ve just seen several ways in which our attorneys may be able to invoke state nursing board procedures for relief from the disciplinary decision that is tempting or compelling your non-compliance. If those avenues do not produce relief or are not available, we may be able to help you address your non-compliance issue in some related fashion. If, for instance, you can no longer afford the education, training, counseling, testing, or monitoring that your disciplinary decision imposes, we may be able to work with your state nursing board officials to find an alternative, appropriate means or provider that you can afford. For another example, if your physical or mental condition has changed in a manner that recommends or requires a different examiner, treater, counselor, or medication than the disciplinary decision states, we may be able to gain a written interpretation from nursing board officials enabling you to make the necessary change. Let us help you find an appropriate workaround with the assurance that the state nursing board accepts it as compliant.
Collateral Consequences of Non-Compliance
In your struggles to comply with your disciplinary decision, try to keep the larger picture in mind. You are fighting to retain a nursing license and practice in which you have invested a substantial part of your life. If you lose your license due to non-compliance, you may lose not only your nursing job and practice but also your nursing reputation, relationships, and network. You may have structured your daily life, finances, rhythms, and relationships around your nursing career, such that losing that career can leave you without a clear course in life. Professionals invest a great deal in their practices and generally receive a great reward. Losing that investment against your choice can devastate you, your family, and your relationships.
Thus, don’t give up the good fight. Do your best to both comply with your disciplinary decision and, with our help, to gain relief through one or more of the above procedures and interpretations. Above all, don’t go it alone, and don’t rely on unqualified legal counsel such as a local criminal defense attorney or personal injury attorney. Get our skilled, compassionate, and strategic representation to address your non-compliance issue before it becomes a non-compliance problem.
Premier Nursing License Defense Available
If you face issues complying with your state nursing board license discipline, retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team to help you avoid further disciplinary violations. We help hundreds of nurses and other healthcare professionals nationwide favorably resolve their licensing board issues. Do not risk non-compliance with a disciplinary order. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for the strategic advice and skilled representation you need to retain your nursing license.