What is a Consent Agreement? What Am I Consenting To Anyway?

I love what I do for a living and I hope you do too because if you are reading this post, you are probably a nurse also. I have been involved in license defense for 8 years and I am very accessible to my clients. I can be reached at work, via business cell phone, email, fax, in-person meetings, I have a few clients who text me, etc. I do not however provide clients with our home telephone number. 

I received a frantic phone call on my business cell phone last night a 10pm on Saturday night from a prospective client. I did alot of yard work and cleaned our pool and hot tub so I was in the bed on Saturday by 9pm (I know, I live such an exciting life!) and didn't answer the phone.

I listened to the voicemail this morning. The nurse was crying throughout the message about how unfair this entire ordeal has been, she did everything she was told by everyone to do and her reward was receiving a Consent Agreement in the mail from the Ohio Board of Nursing.

She ended the voicemail message by saying "What is a Consent Agreement?"

What is a Consent Agreement? A Consent Agreement is a legal document tendered by the Nursing Board to resolve the pending complaint against your license.

One misconception I have found is that nurses assume if they hire an attorney after they receive a Consent Agreement or some other legal document from the Nursing Board to resolve the complaint, that the complaint will just disappear. Oh yeah?

Do you honestly believe the complaint will disappear after you have submitted 3 twenty page responses and statements to the Board (that you didn't keep a copy of by the way), and been interviewed twice for 90 minutes by a Nursing Board investigator (who are very proficient at what they do for a living, I must add)?

If you receive a Consent Agreement in the mail (if you receive it in the mail this means you are representing yourself before the Board), contact a license defense attorney to see what your options are at this point. You always have options although you may not like what your options are at this point. Talk to an attorney. 

Depending on what is being proposed in the Consent Agreement, attorney representation, counseling, and advising may still be beneficial.   

  

Comments

[Devin]

Well 1st of all the Ohio Board of Nursing is ridiculous!! They throw consent agreements at just about anyone for any reason, they wonder why Ohio has a shortage of nurses well because someone makes one MINOR mistake in their life but wants to BETTER their life they throw PERMANENT practice restrictions on them. Really NOW COME ON!!! I could see if there were 2 offenses but ONE please, they all act like they have been perfect all their life, but bottom line is either 1) they have never been caught, 2)their parents were big namers in the community they were caught in or 3)they blamed it on someone else!! Either or the Nursing Board needs to take a step back and look around. Society is pathetic anyway, but when goody too shoes continue to make someones life difficult IS IT A WONDER PEOPLE CHOOSE TO CONTINUE A LIFE OF CRIME....??? ITS EASIER B-CUZ mistakes are not allowed you pay for them for the rest of your lfie!!!