Depending on the state nursing board discipline that you suffer and the grounds for that discipline, a disciplinary action on your nursing record could significantly or severely affect your future as a nurse, including your job prospects and prospects for career advancement. Those potential impacts make your effective defense of disciplinary charges all the more important. Your best move when facing state nursing board disciplinary charges is to retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team for skilled and experienced representation. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for the highly qualified attorney representation you need to defend and defeat your state nursing board disciplinary charges. Don’t let discipline destroy your nursing career and future.
State Nursing Board Disciplinary Authority
The first thing any nurse must do when facing state nursing board disciplinary charges, even before considering the potential impact of discipline, is to recognize that state nursing boards have full disciplinary authority. What state nursing boards give, in terms of a valuable nursing license, state nursing boards can also take away through disciplinary charges and proceedings. See, for example, the Minnesota Nurse Practice Act, which authorizes the Minnesota Board of Nursing to both issue a nursing license and take the license away through disciplinary action. Your state nursing practice act doubtless grants similar authority to your state nursing board to suspend, revoke, or otherwise discipline your nursing license. Don’t doubt the board’s power and authority. Instead, retain our skilled and experienced attorneys for your best disciplinary defense. Don’t run. Instead, fight on a playing field that our services level to your great benefit.
The Immediate Impact of Nursing Board Discipline
Disciplinary action against you can affect your ability to get, hold, and benefit from a nursing job. The immediate impact of license discipline depends on the disciplinary sanction, but license suspension or revocation means immediate termination of your nursing employment. License suspension or revocation also means that you cannot regain a nursing job until you regain your nursing license. Your current employer will have to terminate your nursing employment, and you won’t be able to get a new job until the state nursing board restores your license.
Thus, let us help you fight your disciplinary charge. A disciplinary investigation doesn’t mean that a formal charge will follow. We may be able to head off your disciplinary charge with an effective response to your investigation. And a formal charge doesn’t necessarily mean that discipline must follow. We may well be able to prove the charge wrong or negotiate alternative remedial measures that save your license from discipline. Even if you must admit that you did something wrong in your nursing practice, we may be able to show your state nursing board’s disciplinary officials that you are fit, safe, and competent for nursing practice, especially after any remedial measures we help you take to prove your fitness, good character, and competence.
The Long-Term Impact of Nursing Board Discipline
Disciplinary action against you can also affect your long-term nursing job prospects. State nursing boards can impose discipline long-term. License suspensions may be as short as a month or two or three months. But license suspensions can also be longer, like six months, a year, or two years. And state nursing boards can also suspend your license indefinitely or even revoke your license permanently, meaning that you won’t get another nursing job for as long as the license suspension or revocation lasts. See, for example, the Vermont Nurse Practice Act, which authorizes the Vermont Board of Nursing to either suspend or revoke a license on specific disciplinary grounds. Let us help you defend your disciplinary charges so that you don’t face any disciplinary sanction or, if the board insists on a sanction, it is only for the short term.
Job Hunting After Nursing Board Discipline
Nursing board discipline can also have an impact beyond the life of the suspension. Even if you regain your license after its suspension, or if you only suffer a license reprimand, probation, restriction, limitation, or some other form of discipline less than suspension or revocation, you may find it hard to get another nursing job. Nurses are generally in demand. The job market may be generally good for your return to nursing practice. But employers still have reputations to uphold. Employers can also be risk-averse when considering candidates with a disciplinary record. They may even fear civil liability for negligent hiring if the nurse whom they hire with a disciplinary record commits the same offense again, injuring a patient or nursing colleague. And in a competitive job market for the best nursing jobs, any discipline can be the proverbial kiss of death. If you find another nursing job with a discipline on your record, it may not be the job you want.
What to Do About Discipline When Job Hunting
You may be able to do a few practical things to increase your job prospects with discipline on your record. First, do not conceal your discipline, especially if asked directly to disclose it. Your prospective employer may already know of your discipline from public disciplinary reports or other sources. And if your employer doesn’t know but finds out later, you may lose the job and, with that loss, also lose your reputation for honesty. Disclose when called upon to do so, and disclose accurately. But also, disclose discipline with its helpful explanatory context. If you’ve completed all discipline terms and conditions and have a full and unrestricted license, then say so. If your misconduct was under extenuating circumstances, then say so, without diminishing or refusing to take responsibility for any wrong you actually committed. And be prepared with good character and professional references who continue to respect and trust you despite your prior discipline.
Defending Nursing Board Disciplinary Charges
The better course than having to explain away discipline is to avoid it entirely. We’ve said repeatedly above that your best move is to let us help with your defense. Nurses who represent themselves or retain unqualified counsel generally miss significant opportunities to identify, gather, and present convincing defense evidence, either exonerating the nurse from the charges or mitigating and eliminating the sanction. Our attorneys know the administrative law, rules, and procedures to invoke to present your best defense case. We also know the evidence that nursing board disciplinary officials want to see to ensure that they carry out their duties to protect patients and the public. Let us seek early voluntary non-punitive resolution in favor of remedial measures. And if your matter proceeds to a formal hearing, let us present your testimony, the testimony of your defense witnesses, and your documentary evidence, while challenging any incriminating evidence. Let us help you fight the charges.
Appealing Nursing Board Discipline
You may, though, have already lost your formal hearing. If that’s your situation, immediately retain us for your administrative or court appeal. State nursing practice acts routinely grant appeal rights to nurses who suffer an adverse decision imposing discipline. See, for example, the Vermont Department of Health statement on appeal rights from decisions of the Vermont Board of Nursing and other state agencies, granting aggrieved licensees sixty days within which to appeal. Florida requires filing the appeal within thirty days of the Florida Board of Nursing disciplinary action, while California also requires an appeal to the state’s civil courts within thirty days, with various exceptions. Don’t assume, though, that an appeal takes nothing more than a request for a better decision. Instead, let us pursue your appeal with the legal briefing, analysis, argumentation, and documentation that effective appeals require. An appeal reversal of discipline is a great way to clear your record for better job hunting.
Reconsideration or Rehearing of Discipline
Your state nursing board may also have a process allowing you to request that the board reconsider its disciplinary decision or even hold a new hearing. State nursing practice acts, state nursing board administrative rules, or the state administrative procedure act may state or imply reconsideration rights. Yet don’t assume that your state nursing board will change its mind simply because you asked it to do so. Instead, retain us to confirm your reconsideration or hearing rights, discern the grounds for the request from your hearing record, and advocate effectively that correcting errors that the board made in its initial decision would reverse the discipline. Reconsideration and reversal of the discipline would be a great way to improve your future job prospects.
Nursing License Reinstatement
As briefly indicated above, state nursing boards generally have the authority under state nursing practice acts to reinstate licenses that the board has previously suspended or even revoked. See, for example, the Idaho Nurse Practice Act authorizing the Idaho Board of Nursing to reinstate a license that the Board of Nursing previously suspended or even revoked. Your state nursing practice act likely offers a similar reinstatement opportunity. Indeed, nursing boards that suspend a license for a defined period must presumably have the authority to reinstate the license when the suspension ends.
But again, don’t assume that all you need to do to gain your license’s reinstatement is make a simple request. To the contrary, state nursing practice acts, like the Idaho Nurse Practice Act just cited above, generally expressly require that the nurse petitioning for reinstatement show compliance with all terms for reinstatement in the order of discipline. You must also document your compliance while showing that you are otherwise fit and competent for nursing practice. State nursing boards may also require a reinstatement applicant to appear before the board either to make out the reinstatement case or to answer questions. Let us help you make the necessary technical showing for reinstatement. Don’t miss your opportunity by presenting a weak case.
Nursing Licensure and Jobs in Other States
Unfortunately, one other opportunity to continue your nursing practice and employment after discipline is likely not open to you without first addressing your disciplinary record in one of the ways suggested above. That other option is to get a nursing license and gain a nursing job in another state. While it is true that each state licenses its nurses, most states participate in the Nurse Licensure Compact, effectively making licensure a multistate proposition among Compact states. Under the Compact, gaining a license in one state generally means readily gaining a license by endorsement in other Compact states. But also under the Compact, losing a license in one state generally means losing the ability to license in other Compact states. If you can’t work in your current state because of license discipline, and your current state is among the more than forty Compact states, then you likely won’t be able to work in any other Compact state.
State nursing boards also typically report disciplinary actions to the national Nursys and National Practitioner Data Bank verification systems. Those systems have the purpose of ensuring that nurses can’t jump from state to state to avoid the adverse impact of nurse discipline in one state. If that’s your plan, make a better one. If you lose your license in your current state, you’ll have a hard time getting another license in a different state. If you do apply and believe that the state nursing board in your new state has unreasonably denied you a license, let us help you evaluate whether to challenge the board’s denial through its administrative procedures. Don’t give up until we have helped you exhaust every available administrative and court remedy, and achieved your best possible disciplinary outcome.
Premier Nursing License Defense Available
If you face state nursing board disciplinary charges threatening your nursing job and career, retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team to help you defend and defeat the charges, so that you can preserve your nursing job and career. 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 the premier defense representation you need to preserve your nursing future.