My 2 Cents

Are You Personally What You are Professionally?

I am a member of the ANA Congress on Nursing Practice & Economics. As a Congress member, I received a copy of ANA's Guide to the Code of Ethics for Nurses: Interpretation and Application. See www.nursingworld.org.

I love this guide! I will have enough to post on just from this guide for at least a month.

On page 60, Interpretive Statement 5.3: Wholeness of Character, this question is posed:

Can a person who is a rogue, scoundrel, liar, and cheat in personal life be a virtuous nurse in professional life? It is unlikely.

What we are personally, we are professionally. Our personal and professional identities are neither separate, nor coextensive; they are integrated and deeply commingled, mutually influencing each other. The person who has become "a nurse" as opposed to the person who "does nursing," is the one who has incorporated and integrated the values of the profession with personal values.

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What does this mean to you as a nurse? Do you agree with this statement? Are you a nurse or do you do nursing? Are the values of the profession your personal values? Are you personally what you are professionally? How do you if your professional and personal lives are agreeable and harmonious?

Are some of us living secret personal lives as licensed professionals that will eventually impact, threaten, and destroy our professional lives?

Look at the secret personal life of Eliot Spitzer, the former Governor of the State of New York. Compare and contrast his secret personal life with his professional life as a Governor and former State Attorney General. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/nyregion/10cnd-spitzer.html?hp

Walking the Tight Rope: HIPAA vs. Nursing Board Reporting

You are a staff nurse in a small rural hospital. You are working from 7am to 7pm today. You enter the conference room only to find you are caring for a fellow nurse who was admitted for a suspected drug overdose. You don't know this nurse however its the talk of the unit. This nurse tested positive for several illegal drugs including marijuana and heroin. The nurse-patient is not an employee of the hospital.

Are you morally, ethically and/or legally required by the State Nurse Practice Act to report this nurse to the State Board of Nursing or does HIPAA and state privacy laws prohibit the reporting? What does the ANA Code of Ethics mandate in this situation? What would you do in this situation? What are your concerns?

RN Renewal in Ohio

I am a RN in Ohio and I have to renew my license this year. I have the required continuing education for renewal. The RN Renewal Application in Ohio asks a series of questions that may trigger a disciplinary investigation:

1. Have you been convicted of a felony?

2. Have you been convicted of a misdemeanor in the course of nursing practice?

3. Have you received intervention in lieu of conviction (treatment in lieu of conviction for a chemical dependency where a nurse has stolen medication)?

4. Have you been been convicted of any crime that involves moral turpitude or reckless conduct? This is not the exact wording however its close. Moral turpitude is interpreted very broadly under Ohio case law.

5. Have you had any action taken against a professional license in any other state or jurisdiction?

Nurses if you are not sure on whether or not you should respond in the affirmative seek assistance. You can contact the Ohio Board of Nursing for clarification. Or you can seek legal advice and counseling in the form of a legal consultation from an administrative law attorney who practices in this area.

Don't guess if you have questions related to an incident, occurrence, conviction, etc. Make sure you are responding truthfully and accurately to the Ohio RN Renewal Application. 

Going Bare: Is it Ethical?

The majority of nurses (RNs and LPNs) don't carry their own professional liability insurance policy. I have professional liability insurance to cover my consulting firm and my practice as a home health RN and I also have a separate policy for my law firm.

Why? The same reason why I purchase medical, dental, and other insurance. I want the coverage to protect my myself.

I had a meeting with a prospective client last week, who later retained me to represent her before a state board of nursing. She cancelled her policy two years ago after being told by hospital risk management staff that the policy was unnecessary because nurses are covered by the hospital's policies.

Going bare in this post refers to a nurse not having his or her own professional liability insurance policy. In this post, relying on your employer's policy is not considered "insurance" unless you are provided with a copy of the policy(ies), you are provided with updates on the status of the policy(ies) whenever renewed, modified, etc., and your name and your title with your employer is specifically mentioned in the policy.

Is is ethical not to have your own professional liability insurance policy? Or would you say that it has nothing to do with ethics and it is strictly a business decision whether or not a nurse purchases his/her own professional liability insurance? What do you think?

Unprofessional Conduct

What is unprofessional conduct for nurses? Do you know how your state Nurse Practice Act (NPA) and state Board of Nursing regulations define unprofessional conduct or misconduct? You should.

In my experience, I have found the majority of unprofessional conduct from nurses in the workplace stems from dsyfunctional and unhealthy work environments. This happens when unhealthy and borderline conduct is tolerated over a period of months or years until The INCIDENT happens. This INCIDENT is allegedly so offensive and degrading that the nurse(s) may be terminated and reported to the state board of nursing or other regulatory agencies for a variety of alleged offenses.

The bottom line is to keep it professional in the workplace. I am all for making work wonderful and having fun in the workplace, but there are boundaries.

How do you draw the line between joking and playful behavior in the workplace and unprofessional conduct. Please keep in mind that what is considered "normal behavior" on a particular unit, floor, wing,  or setting may not be the norm for professional nursing.

There will always be nurses who press the boundaries of normal behavior and conduct in the workplace because there will always be the "the good, the bad, and the ugly" behaving in every occupation and profession. However, you don't have to be that individual.

You are a professional, so keep it professional in the workplace, please. Tell me, are you working in an unhealthy and dysfunctional environment?