Your State Nursing Board Complaint is coming and just like Christmas its only 3 weeks away!

You work in a very busy ER in the downtown of a mid-size city. You are a seasoned ER nurse and you have worked at this facility for 12 years. The last 2 years have been rough however. You divorced from your spouse of 15 years last year in 2008 and have shared custody with your 5 kids ages 15, 10, 7, 4, and 2. Also your elderly parents live in the area and you take on the primary responsibilities of keeping them in their home through a combination of home care and other social services. You have one sibling, who lives in another country and only returns to the country every three to five years to visit.

You received a verbal warning in January 2009 for being rude to a patient who was in the ER with drug seeking behavior. In May 2009, you were wrote up for the inappropriate remarks and verbal tongue lashing you gave a floater nurse who was "moving to slow" during a code situation.

You written up in July 2010 after being a verbal swearing match that almost turned physical with a nursing house supervisor related to the process of admitting ER patients. There were conflicting accounts of staff of what actually happened but you were viewed as the aggressor and a fitness for duty was ordered. You were evaluated and you followed the recommendations. You return to work after a 3 week paid leave and you are welcomed back by the nurses, docs, and other staff in the ER.

A pregnant woman comes in to the ER with her husband. The women is having chest pain. Within 20 minutes of her arrival to the ER, several of the couples friends, family, and colleagues also arrive at the ER.  This is the couples first pregnancy. They were married two years ago and both have successful careers as pharmacists. The woman is 4 months pregnant.

While you are assessing the woman, she tells you she is nervous and scared. You tell her "Honey, I have 5 kids and this is nothing. Just wait and you will see, this is only the beginning."    

You arrive at work the next day and find the ER Manager, the Assistant CNO, and HR waiting for you. They ask you about your care of the pregnant women. You recount your care and state there was nothing out of the ordinary as the woman was admitted for observation. They ask about your statement about "this is nothing" and you say it was taken out of context and you were only trying to help calm her down.

They tell you that you are being terminated effective today, December 4th for being rude to a patient. They tell you this incident as well as the previous infractions are being reported to the State Nursing Board. They also tell you that the pharmacists are really upset and are also planning to report you to the State Nursing Board.

Its December 4th. You have been terminated from your employment and reported to the State Nursing Board. You don't have your own professional liability insurance policy because you didn't think you needed it. Its Christmas time and you certainly don't want to spend any money on hiring a lawyer because you didn't do anything wrong here as this is ajust a  misunderstanding of the worst kind.

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1. Should the employer report her to the State Nursing Board?

2. Do you think she violated the State Nurse Practice Act, Board Regulations, or any professional standards?

3. Do you think her termination was fair? She is of course at-will employed.

4. Do you think she should hire a lawyer now to represent her in the State Nursing Board case which is coming just like Christmas?

5. What are the personal issues here?

6. What are the professional issues here?

7. What are the goals for the future?

I consider myself as a license defense defense attorney to be "a clean up woman." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh-2_kdVcyA. No, honey, I am not stealing anyone's man (I have my own) but I am legally responding to what happens when a variety of "shelved" factors collide and the results (whether intended or unintended) are complex and may include but not limited to personal, financial, emotional, professional, licensure, criminal, employment, civil (med mal), mental health, regulatory, workplace, credentialing, or privileging stressors or events.

Sometimes, just sometimes, the license, while the obvious concern in a State Nursing Board complaint investigation and adjudication, is really not "that important" when everything else is considered.

I will give you an extreme example. If you are the Black Swan (which damn it I CAN"T WAIT to see. We may drive to Indy or Columbus to watch next weekend) and you have an active and valid license to practice nursing, the question is not can you practice but should you practice? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0947798/  Maybe there are somethings you need to do for yourself before you should practice although you can practice now. This is the hallmark of a professional putting the needs of the industry you serve and service before your own needs, wants, and desires.

So what are you saying LaTonia. As a nurse license defense attorney, I will you tell; your license is important but there are always things more important than your nursing license right at this given moment. Sometimes its my role as your attorney to help you see this.

 

 

 

Comments

[tess]

so good to have you back, I was going through blog withdrawl

[RehabRN]

Wow! You really put it out there!

I work with a couple of people who fit this MO and bring their home life to work by being surly, etc.

They just don't get it, that it could catch up to them and they need to get help for themselves if they need it in order to be good nurses to patients.