Nursing Law & Order

Improve Handoffs in Your Nursing Workplace: Free Webinar for Nurses!

Improve Handoffs in Your Organization

Free Webinar – February 24, 2010 at
2:00 p.m. (ET)

See http://navigatenursing.org/events.html

Join Mary Ann Friesen, PhD, RN, CPHQ on Wednesday, February 24th at 2:00 p.m. ET to examine current practices, identify barriers to the handoff process and discuss strategies for effective handoffs. Register now!

Dr. Friesen is the Quality Consultant at Inova Alexandria Hospital in Alexandria, Virginia and one of the authors of Handoffs: Implications for Nurses, a chapter in the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s publication Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses.

Nursing Union Reps Giving Legal Advice: Everyone and their Momma wants to be a lawyer. That's fine, but graduate from a law school and pass a bar exam first, please!

Nursing union reps when a situation occurs in the workplace give nurses advice and counseling on how to proceed based on the collective bargaining agreement. IMHO there is a thin line between giving legal advice and counseling and instructing a nurse how to proceed under a collective bargaining agreement in a workplace situation or incident. But that's just me. Maybe I am paranoid because instead of  "I see dead people", I see people practicing law without a license.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sixth_Sense

I am working with a nurse who was given very bad advice by a nursing union representative (who is not an attorney of course) at a hospital and this advice will have workplace, employment, and licensure implications for the nurse. The nurse is very upset because she trusted her union rep. She has also tried to contact the union president repeatedly and has not received a return phone call.

The practice of nursing in healthcare which is one of the most highly regulated fields is becoming more complex with the interplay of civil, criminal, administrative, licensure, professional practice, clinical, credentialing, malpractice, employment, labor, collective bargaining, and workplace issues.

Nurses there is no substitute for legal advice from an attorney and in my opinion, nursing unions should hire an attorney (law school graduate who is licensed to practice law in the state) to work with the local unions, union officers and representatives in a particular facility to make sure nurses are being counseled and advised properly pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement during the grievance process.

For example, the Ohio Nurses Association has Labor Relations Specialists who are licensed attorneys who are very involved with working with union officers and representatives in the collective bargaining and grievance process. The attorneys don't represent the individual nurse, the attorneys represent the union in the grievance process but its still solid counseling and advising for the nurse related to the workplace issue. The Labor Relation Specialist can then say "hey you might need to speak with your own attorney about this or that." This nurse is not being represented by the Ohio Nurses Association union because honestly if she was the situation would have been handled properly.  

Just my two cents but nursing unions are fighting to organize nurses and doing cartwheels explaining the benefits of union representation in the nursing workplace. That's fine and dandy and peachy and creamy but hire attorneys and assign attorneys to work with and counsel and advise the local unit officers and reps who then work with the individuals nurses in a specific hospital, nursing home, home care agency, etc.

Yes it costs money to hire licensed attorneys and yes it can be expensive but this is why nurses are paying union dues right? If you are going to administer a collective bargaining agreement and you purport to represent the nurses in a given workplace pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement, then hire the attorneys you need to perform the triage on the frontlines in the battlefield.

"On the Edge" vs. Complex: State Nursing Board Complaints, Investigations, Adjudications, and Post-Monitoring

This is February 1st and January 2010 has been a busy one.

State Nursing Board complaints, investigations, adjudications, alternative to discipline program cases, post-discipline reinstatement and monitoring cases are becoming more complex. I am seeing more cases where it involves more than one State Nursing Board and multiple complicated issues and fact patterns. I love my job!!!!

There is a difference between complex vs. on the edge. There are some cases that are just "on the edge" and you know these cases.

I remember when I worked in a law firm and a very wealthy physician retained the firm to represent him in a complicated matter. The case was a priority case. It was a complicated case involving licensure, employment, state and federal regulatory, medical malpractice, credentialing, contract, and possible criminal issues. After the 3 hour meeting with the physician ended, the senior attorney responsible for the case said to the team of attorneys in the conference room (after the physician and his team left of course),  "I am getting to old for this shit." This was an "on the edge case" and you needed a chain saw to cut the smog from the cigarettes, perspiration, and tension in the room.

I am still young baby, turning 3 to the 9 this July and I am not "too old." I think of this attorney's remark and the grim look on his face and the time and effort we as team needed to "work" that case and I smile. This was ten years ago and these types of cases are cropping up in nursing with more frequency. Why?

I don't like practicing law "on the edge" or "living on the edge" or doing anything "on the edge" because I am scared of heights. But I have several "on the edge" cases and we take a more systematic approach to bring our clients and the case "off the edge" because its not healthy for the nurse or for us. It takes time and alot of effort but we have alot of success.

If you have an "on the edge" case, I will tell you so and I will charge you accordingly or refer you to another license defense attorney with no hesitation. If you are seeking someone to help you and assist you in your case, guide you through this long process, and you are willing to work just as hard as we are to get a handle on the issues and the drama, then this is the first step in turning an "on the edge" case into a complex case. I have no problem with complex cases because complex State Nursing Board cases are becoming the norm anyway. But maybe that's just my law practice:)