Are All Nursing Board Complaints Filed in Good Faith?

I have practiced licensure defense since 2001 as an attorney in private practice. I can tell you there are some nursing employers and these are typically large teaching hospitals that report "everything" to the Board of Nursing. I mean everything. If a nurse drops a vial of saline, its reported. If you slip up and say "shit" on the unit; it gets reported.

Then there are facilties that never report a nurse to the Nursing Board unless it makes the news or a patient/resident threatens to sue or go to the media.

Why is there such a disparity? The underreporting and overreporting both should be addressed; not just one or the other.

Some if not most State Board of Nursing are mandatory reporting states. Look here for an explanation of mandatory reporting. https://www.ncsbn.org/163.htm. This is from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing website.

Some employers report nurses for the wrong reasons. If you want to argue with me on this point, call me. Its a distrubing trend I am seeing in my law practice. I will speak with a nurse or meet with a nurse and think to myself or aloud "this was reported to the State Nursing Board?" Incidents that could have been managed or handled "in house" are being reported to the Nursing Board under the auspices of "mandatory reporting." Is it really mandatory reporting or is there something else going on here?

In some cases, the reporting is not done because of perceived or actual violation of the nursing law and regulations or patient safety, the motive is more sinister and self-serving. After all, who wants to be investigated by the Nursing Board? 

I know that when I pick up a home health visit here and there, I don't walk into a patient's home thinking, "I am doing to do something that gets me reported to the Nursing Board!"

Its done to humiliate, upset, and torment the nurse and its works! Why does this happen? Because of the one-sided nature of hiring/firing that benefits the healthcare employer and the perceived and actual lack of fairness, equality, and power of nurses in the healthcare working environment.

The State Nursing Board complaint becomes the healthcare employer's equivalent of giving the nurse one final middle finger "for the road" because usually the nurse has already been disciplined, suspended or terminated by the facility.

Comments

[Licensed Revoked by Nursing Board]

A complaint was filed against my license by my last employer. The information sent to the Board did not include any culpability on the hospital's part. The Board refused to acknowledge any statements I provided regarding the hospital's negligence prior to and following the occurrence.

It seems ironic that the Nursing Board dances around all the rules which the Board holds others accountable. I am glad to see someone; even if not in my state, work to protect nurses.
The damage is done in my case as far as my license. The damage being the emotional, financial, pyschological distress caused because of the complaint.

[LaTonia]

Thank you for emailing your concerns to me and allowing me to post some of the information.

[s.d.]

I lost my nursing license because of a untrue and false complaint filed against me. I am a good nurse and I need help. I do not know if I will ever practice nursing again.

[Shen]

Don't feel bad, S.D. get mad. I was told I was nuts when I pointed out the contradicting statements, and even the witnesses who said the accusation was a lie, were ignored. There seems to be a concerted attack on nurses, although I have no idea what purpose it serves.