Your Nursing Board Monitoring Agent is Not Your Friend; Its a Professional Relationship

I spoke with a nurse this weekend. She is on probation with a Nursing Board for practice issues. The nurse was upset because she didn't understand why the Nursing Board staff were so "cut and dry" and wanted "just the facts" when she contacted the Board. She remarked "we are all nurses and we have to have common interests and concerns." She asked her monitoring agent personal questions like how many kids do you have, how long have you been a nurse, etc. The Nursing Board monitoring agent became defensive and clarified the nature of the relationship between the nurse and monitoring agent.

We are all nurses whether you are a staff nurse, nurse educator, nurse regulatory, nurse attorney, nurse manager, etc. Whenever I meet someone who is a nurse, I feel there is an instant connection because we are nurses.

I reminded the nurse that Nursing Board staff have a job to do and function in accordance with a position description. When you are being monitored by the Nursing Board you have a professional relationship with the Board staff. There should be boundaries in this relationship just like in the nurse-patient relationship.

Making nice and establishing a personal relationship with every nurse who is being monitored by the Board would without a doubt cloud the professional relationship and make it more difficult for the Nursing Board staff to do their job. Don't take offense because the person is just "doing their job" because you too need to be doing your job and doing what is necessary to complete the probation.