Nursing Law & Order

We Postponed the Wedding

This has been a very interesting week and its only Tuesday.

We are not getting married on Wednesday, July 8, 2009 in Las Vegas. We have decided to postpone the wedding indefinitely. Without providing TMI (as you know us nurses love to talk), it was a difficult but necessary decision at this point. 

Nursing Board has to wait for its bite out of the Apple: Criminal Matter has Priority over the State Nursing Board investigation

See http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/46870692.html

30 days and counting: Tying the Knot and No Longer Shacking Up (As My Granny Says)

My wedding is next month and I am little nervous. Are you married? How long have you been married? Any words of advice, nurse to nurse?

Our wedding is Wednesday, July 8th at 8pm. We are getting married on the beach at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino. My birthday is July 2nd and his is July 28th, so we are figuring that at least for the next 20+ years we can party the entire month of July. We are having a cake and champagne reception for our family and friends here at our home on Sunday, July 12th.

We are purchasing our wedding bands this weekend and I will start looking for a dress next week. I have lost 35 pounds and I feel great! Not Tony the Tiger great but great nonetheless. I am walking 3 to 4 miles a day at least 3-6 days out of the week and watching what I eat but not dieting.

I am drinking plenty of water, one soda a day (It is Pepsi or Mountain Dew (yellow) or death in our home), and one cup of coffee. Okay, TMI.

Home Health: The Final Frontier for Risk, Potential Liability, and State Nursing Board Complaints

The Final Frontier is from Star Trek and I hope by now you have seen the new Star Trek.

I loved working as a home health RN and I plan to transition back into home care at some point in the future. Maybe just a few visits per month just to keep my skills current. But guess what? I have been out of the thick of it for over a year and I will need to be reoriented, shadow another nurse for several days, and have some classroom and lectures components before working as a home health RN again. I will need a longer orientation period (which I am willing to do uncompensated if needed because I will be working per diem not full time or part-time) because its my license on the line when I am caring for patients and performing visits.

I am seeing more home health cases in my law practice where home health nurses are being reported to the State Nursing Board for professional boundary issues, billing discrepancies, fraudulent documentation, theft of patient property, unsafe nursing practice, drug theft and diversion, misconduct/unprofessional behavior, CPR issues, etc.

If you are planning to transition to home care make sure you have the training and orientation you need before you make the leap. There is more autonomy and less supervision in home care as opposed to working in a hospital or other healthcare settings. Having more autonomy and less supervision has legal risks.

Are you ready to manage those legal risks because you are responsible and accountable for your nursing practice? Its your license; your nursing license does not belong to the patient, family, or the home care agency.

If you are a home health nurse and you practice in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana and you are "willy nilly" in the field; I am expecting your phone call (sooner or later) and I am looking forward to working with you.

You would not walk a tight rope two stories in the air without a net, would you?

You would not dive in a concrete swimming pool head first without water, would you?

You would not eat your mother in law's cooking without taking Gas-X and Tagamet, would you?

Of course not, so don't assume the care for high acuity and complex home care patients on the skilled or private duty side without the proper training, orientation, and in-servicing.

RNs Against Forced Unionism: Nursing Unions are not Everyone!!

RAFU, they are calling themselves, RN Against Forced Unionism.

See the website at http://www.thepronurse.com/blog.html.

Are you for or against unions in nursing?

If I say just say I have an addiction and I stole drugs, the Nursing Board will go easy on me? This is Common Knowledge!

I was asked this question this week. A nurse was told this by several colleagues that with State Nursing Board investigations the Nursing Board will "go easier on you" if you say you have an addiction and you stole drugs; this is "common knowledge."

Its just that simple, right? You admit to having a drug addiction, you stole drugs, and everything is in an instant made better, right? 

A few of things I can say are "common knowledge" in my 12 years of law practice and 8 years of license defense:

1. Nurses in general proceed pro se for the most part and represent themselves before the State Nursing Board in complaint investigations;

2. Nurses in general proceed pro se for the most part and receive "legal" counseling and advising on license, criminal, professional practice, workplace, and employment related issues from other nurses, family, friends, and co-workers. This includes the online chat rooms, message boards, and other online forums;

3. Nurses are very trusting professionals and in general assume that "everyone" has their best interest at heart; and

4. Nurses for the most part do not purchase their own individual professional liability insurance policy based on misconceptions and myths.

Impairment and addiction may have physical, mental, social, financial, criminal, license, employment, civil, workplace, regulatory, and career implications for LPNs, RNs, and APRNs and navigating through this maze and haze is anything but "common knowledge."