State nursing boards have the statutory duty to protect patients and the public against unfit, incompetent, or dangerous nursing. State nursing practice acts and state nursing board rules generally define the common types of issues that state nursing boards investigate. Read below about those common issues and how the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team helps nurses respond to investigations and defend and defeat related disciplinary charges. And call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our skilled and experienced representation, and for your best possible disciplinary outcome.
State Nursing Board Disciplinary Authority
Whatever your situation is, don’t doubt the authority of your state nursing board to investigate your license and pursue disciplinary charges. State nursing boards have the statutory authority not only to issue licenses but also to suspend, revoke, or otherwise discipline licenses when nurses commit various violations of professional rules and standards. See, for example, the California Nursing Practice Act’s provisions for disciplining nurse licenses. Your state will have a similar act and rules. The California Nursing Practice Act states expressly that the California Board of Registered Nursing has the authority to suspend or revoke the license of a nurse, place the nurse’s license on probation, or take whatever other disciplinary action the Board deems proper. Don’t fight your state nursing board’s authority. Instead, retain us to respond to the investigation and head off or fight the disciplinary charges. Respect your state nursing board’s power. But let us hold your state board’s disciplinary officials to a fair process that gives you the best possible opportunity to avoid discipline.
Disciplinary Grounds Nursing Boards Investigate
State nursing boards generally investigate the types of misconduct for which their state nursing practice act authorizes discipline. State nursing board disciplinary authority is broad. State nursing practice acts list many grounds for discipline, some of which are themselves broad grounds. But the listed grounds for discipline tend to represent the common disciplinary issues that nurses face. The California Nursing Practice Act, already cited above, includes these typical grounds for state nursing board investigation:
- fraud in obtaining your license, such as false statements or misleading omissions on applications or renewal applications;
- impersonating another person on a license exam or application;
- incompetence or gross negligence in the practice of nursing;
- knowingly failing to protect patients with infection control;
- felony conviction or misdemeanor conviction related to nursing;
- false claims of licensure as a nurse specialist;
- license discipline in another healthcare field or by another state;
- advertising nursing services in violation of standards;
- any practice violating recognized nursing standards;
- practicing nursing without a license; and
- other unprofessional conduct.
Notice how broad some of the categories are, especially the categories for incompetence, gross negligence, standards violations, and unprofessional conduct. Those categories could implicate a wide range of issues. Retain us immediately if you face any misconduct, unprofessional conduct, or standards violations allegations. We can help you respond most effectively to a state nursing board investigation.
Types of Issues Implicating State Board Investigation
As broad as the above categories are, they tend to capture certain types of common issues that state nursing boards investigate. Consider the types of issues that tend to fall into each of the following broad disciplinary grounds. Our attorneys can help you respond to an investigation of any of these issues and defend you against any of these disciplinary charges.
Types of Unprofessional Conduct State Nursing Boards Investigate
Types of unprofessional conduct that state nursing boards investigate include substance abuse, dependency, and addiction, nursing practice while impaired by drugs or alcohol, nursing practice affected by mental or physical impairment, theft or other diversion of drugs, theft of patient property, assaults or other threats of violence directed toward patients or colleagues, and disrespect or insubordination toward supervising nurses and physicians. Unprofessional conduct allegations can be vague, implicating considerable subjectivity. Our attorneys know how to ensure that the allegations are clear, factual, and objective, so that we can raise an appropriate defense based on all the available evidence.
Types of Standards Violations State Nursing Boards Investigate
Types of standards violations that state nursing boards investigate include failure in hygiene, sterilization of equipment, storage and use of nursing supplies, and other conditions contributing to patient infection, disobeying physician’s orders, practicing beyond the scope of the nursing license, delegating nursing tasks to unlicensed or unqualified individuals, assisting in the unlicensed practice of nursing, failing to keep accurate nursing records, and altering nursing or other patient records once entered. Standards violations tend to involve matters of nursing expertise, subject to forensic consultant interpretation. Our attorneys know the nursing consultants to retain to testify to the appropriate standards in defense of accused nurses.
Types of Incompetence State Nursing Boards Investigate
Types of incompetence and gross negligence that state nursing boards investigate include nurses endangering patients with unsafe practices administering medications, making errors administering medications, failing to use proper technique for lifting and assisting patients, failing to turn patients in bed and clean bedding and wounds, leaving bed rails down against physician orders exposing patients to falls, failing to note significant changes in patient conditions, failing to call for physician or supervisor review of emergent patient conditions, and similar errors in common nursing practice. Incompetence allegations are especially serious when relating to serious patient injuries. Our attorneys know how to respond when changes in patient conditions are due to the natural course of disease rather than nursing incompetence or when others were responsible for the alleged wrongs.
Common Defenses to Nursing Issues
As just suggested above, our attorneys are often able to raise effective defenses to the above common nursing issues, either during the course of a state nursing board investigation or in the disciplinary hearing if the investigation leads to formal charges. Our first effort is generally to confirm the actual facts and circumstances. When patients, their family members, colleagues, or others complain about a nurse’s practices, they often make mistakes in their complaints. We may be able to show that the complainant misidentified you for another nurse, mistook your good intentions for wrong intentions, misunderstood the nursing method you were properly applying, or simply did not know the nursing standard you were following. Our forensic nursing consultants may be able to establish that your conduct was within the nursing standard of care.
We may alternatively be able to show that you were acting reasonably under the direction of an attending physician or supervising nurse, within a safe harbor. We may also be able to show that the facility gave you more duties than a nurse could reasonably complete, that the facility was short-staffed or under-equipped, and that you performed your nursing duties as well as any competent nurse could under the circumstances. We may also be able to show that the allegations against you were false, retaliatory, and a cover-up for others’ wrongs. Even in the event that you violated nursing standards, we may be able to make out a good case for mitigation of any sanction, by showing your good disciplinary and work record, and your prompt remediation of the alleged wrong.
State Nursing Board Investigations
You may benefit from knowing how state nursing boards typically investigate common types of nursing issues. Investigation can, of course, depend on who complains and the nature of the complaint. But generally, nursing board disciplinary officials will first evaluate the complaint for potential merit. Some complaints are so off the wall that the board will dismiss them without substantial investigation. But if the complaint appears to have potential merit, the nursing board generally assigns an experienced investigator to prepare an investigation report. Some state nursing boards will immediately notify the accused nurse of a pending investigation. Other boards will permit the investigator to contact and interview the complainant and other witnesses, and obtain and review records, before notifying the accused nurse. The investigator generally interviews the accused nurse and requests the nurse’s records before compiling the investigation report. The state nursing board may then use the investigation report to determine whether to pursue formal disciplinary charges and hold the disciplinary hearing.
Responding to State Nursing Board Investigation
Your response to a state nursing board investigation matters. Retain our attorneys the moment you learn of a state nursing board investigation so that we can help you respond appropriately. If state nursing board officials believe that you have failed or refused to tell the truth, produce requested records, and otherwise cooperated with the investigation, they may pursue disciplinary charges for obstructing the investigation, even if you did nothing wrong. We can help you ensure that your responses to the investigator are accurate and complete. We can also help ensure that the investigator’s requests are fair. We can help you prepare for your interview and ensure that the investigator doesn’t unfairly interview you multiple times when you are unprepared, to catch you in unintended contradictions.
Raising an Effective Defense During Investigation
Even more than ensuring that your disciplinary investigation is fair, we may be able to help you raise an effective defense in the course of your disciplinary investigation. In the best case, we may be able to head off formal disciplinary charges, effectively resolving your disciplinary matter at the investigation stage. The way we go about presenting your defense during an investigation is to help you identify, gather, organize, and present your defense evidence to the investigator. No sense in waiting to present defense evidence at a formal disciplinary hearing. When we present your exonerating and mitigating evidence to the investigator in a coherent, reliable, and convincing fashion, we gain for you the benefit of the investigator’s doubt. Your defense evidence goes into the investigation report so that the state nursing board can see the justice in relieving you from the disciplinary allegations. We may even be able to negotiate alternative remedial measures in place of any disciplinary sanction, right at the investigation stage.
State Board Authority to Resolve Investigations
Keep in mind that state nursing boards generally have the authority to resolve disciplinary allegations at whatever stage of the proceeding that the board determines is in the best interest. You don’t necessarily have to face a protracted disciplinary proceeding with a full hearing and appeals. Your best interest is generally an early resolution that carries no disciplinary sanctions. Our attorneys may be able to show the board and its investigator that you did nothing wrong. But even if the investigator finds evidence of misconduct, we may be able to propose remedial, non-disciplinary measures that you have already completed or can readily complete. Those measures, such as additional education, training, evaluation, counseling, or mentoring, may even be good for you without respect to the misconduct allegations. Let us make your best case for a positive resolution without discipline, right at the investigation stage, before things get too far along.
Premier Nursing License Defense Available
If you face state nursing board disciplinary allegations and a state board investigation, retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team to help you respond to the investigation and head off any formal disciplinary charges. If you already face disciplinary charges, let us help you defend and defeat those charges. Our highly qualified attorneys have helped hundreds of nurses and other healthcare professionals respond to investigations and defend and defeat charges. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for the premier attorney representation you need.