anyone have a board complaint

Nurses General Nursing

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This is something nurses need to discuss , the number of nurses who get board complaints and have no idea how to handle them . Or have preconceived ideas on how to proceed. And most complaints have nothing to do with nursing .

Specializes in ICU, LTACH, Internal Medicine.
1 hour ago, BeenThere2012 said:

Anyone have suggestions?

Educate yourself! Buy a high-ranked book about legal aspects of nursing, read it till the main stuff gets into your bone marrow, read pertaining documents for your state.

Do not gossip. Do not get involved in local politics, groupings, cliques, etc. Do not be everyone's dear. Keep your personal stuff personal. Remain calm at all cases. Be the nurse who is highly sought after for skills and knowledge, not for "relation skills" or other social junk. Be the one who is trusted by everyone, who is afraid of nothing, who is respected by docs.

Get a good connections with a family lawyer, to begin with. Learn about TAANA and locate their lawyers in your state.

If you have to stand your ground, be reasonably aggressive. If you feel threatened, either go first by going up to chain of commands with 72 business hours for each step or leave the job immediately. Just waiting for things "just mending themselves" NEVER leads to any good. Always keep a side PRN gig job if you are concerned about "job hopping" (which is not that a big deal in reality).

Do not become "that only one nurse" in any sense. Be especially careful with facilities that are associated with religious organizations unless you belong to the same faith.

Get professional from your day#1 in school.

You have the same rights as everyone else. You can file personal lawsuit against one(s) who are threatening you, you can report that person to Board anonymously for whatever flippant reason, you can wear concealed dictophone at work and then, if necessary, plead before the Court that you felt reasonably threatened to the point of being physically or emotionally endangered and was not able to secure legal counsel immediately (still, you better get a lawyer and Court order first if there is any possibility to do so before going to record someone at work). By my observation, even effectively going up by local chain of commands once but doing it FIRST will keep mouths shut up for a whole long time.

EAP and such programs are NOT ANONIMOUS. Whoever tells you otherwise, it is a just plain lie.

Avoid all "support groups" and such. As a matter of fact, limit all social networking activity to your non-nursing part of life as much as possible. Do not tell your full story to anyone except fully anonimously or to lawyer.

If you happens to know someone working in Boards, do you best to keep this friendship.

Keep in mind that stepping up a step on the chain of commands (becoming an administrator, manager, APP, etc) is a good protection by itself.

People who enjoy reporting their colleagues for nothing are usually stupid cowards with zero foresight. Be smarter and cooler than they are. Use yoyr brain against them and do not be a sheep waiting for things to happen.

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1 hour ago, BeenThere2012 said:

When I went through this, I tried to think of other careers as well. Having been a nurse for more than 30 years at that point, I couldn’t imagine what I would do otherwise. I was so desperate to find any work at all, I applied to Costco and couldn’t even get an interview! Hahaha!

In my case, I felt higher powers were telling me not to give up. I learned a new specialty. Fortunate and great full for the experience, but not happy.

Its journey for sure. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to help others going through this, or some way to foster change for us in these situations. Anyone have suggestions?

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All you can do is gather others to help, find someone to sponsor a bill that will curb their power. Seems like state agencies all stick together . Put up a fb or web page and have others come on and discuss this horrible situation. No way would anonymous complaint fly in a criminal case. No way would someone surrendering their license , say take it , would end up with punitive charges on them . (about 10 states az is one) . When a strong union of nurses gather to fight this , only then will it stop . Beware of "board " atty's they want you to sign an agreement, anything, just so you keep working to pay them. look up and connect with nurses who have won. Promote that atty. Report the board to agencies and get the public involved . Keep records. This is a horrific area, of unduly punitive over powering boards going full force on a nurse in most cases did nothing wrong . Where is the court appointed atty ? Criminals get better treatment than nurses. Inform others . lots of posts .azstateboardofnursingwatchdogs. It is horrible and demeaning to nurses everywhere . I would say run anyone thinking about this 'career" . They do not take cops certifications away, maybe get fired but seldom take certification , but nurses probation , revoke all the time !

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Specializes in PICU, Pediatrics, Trauma.
2 hours ago, kuippo said:

All you can do is gather others to help, find someone to sponsor a bill that will curb their power. Seems like state agencies all stick together . Put up a fb or web page and have others come on and discuss this horrible situation. No way would anonymous complaint fly in a criminal case. No way would someone surrendering their license , say take it , would end up with punitive charges on them . (about 10 states az is one) . When a strong union of nurses gather to fight this , only then will it stop . Beware of "board " atty's they want you to sign an agreement, anything, just so you keep working to pay them. look up and connect with nurses who have won. Promote that atty. Report the board to agencies and get the public involved . Keep records. This is a horrific area, of unduly punitive over powering boards going full force on a nurse in most cases did nothing wrong . Where is the court appointed atty ? Criminals get better treatment than nurses. Inform others . lots of posts .azstateboardofnursingwatchdogs. It is horrible and demeaning to nurses everywhere . I would say run anyone thinking about this 'career" . They do not take cops certifications away, maybe get fired but seldom take certification , but nurses probation , revoke all the time !

I agree with “criminals get better treatment than nurses.” In our situations, there is no “innocent until proven guilty”. All the advice to “keep quiet and do not discuss with anyone”, as well as, “be careful what you say because it may used against you”, takes all the control out of the accused nurses’ hands, leaves them without any recourse to get information in order to defend themselves, and renders them sitting ducks. I had NO IDEA where the hospital administration was taking this or how they were plotting to make me look bad. As I mentioned in another comment, I had no clue as the direction they took this until the discovery was presented. By that time I had already made my explanation/defense statements and was unable to address in response what they accused (Which was TOTALLY MISREPRESENTED. They left out several critical points which changed the overall picture in how the situation appeared.

Anyway...I’ll stop now. I’ve said enough and its in the past. Just was trying to educate others a bit and support those currently in this situation.

Kuippo...Thank you for your input. You make some excellent points!

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thank you for sharing . I have found with other similarly situated it is never in the past. One NP who was railroaded as well by az BON, years later called me up when she signed up for soc security , they started taking out her student loan out of that , when she was already living on a tight budget . She said I tried moving on and it just keeps following me . So sad to see all of the lives ruined, and mgt plotting against nurses like yourself , and using every trick in the book. That is why they don't want you talking, so others won't warn you. Seems like in every case they turn the tables on the nurse. I hope you do write a book , put your story on line and inform everyone, you live in a free country and the BON cannot take your freedom of speech. Or your soul . Take care thanks for sharing and caring.

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Katie M , that is a really good response . TAANA, is good, but you must either pay for atty or do it yourself. one thing is the boards are corrupt, and will make sure you get fired, and out of work asap, that will stop you. Unless you get creative , and have a paralegal cert, keep fighting them in court but you cannot pay an atty. malpractice will pay 25k for RN for license protection, more for NP , just do not tell your atty or anyone you have it . No one can find out. A lot of the post , is like you are working , believe me the most corrupt boards will make phone calls, to places you work or worked on their intake questionaire. My advise do not fill that part out put n/a , they are looking for dirt . If there is a pattern it will show up . There is no pattern, they go on a witch hunt. You will not believe the extent or the taxpayers money they will spend to dirty your name, spread lies in their magazines, and put every board meeting on the web. They are willing to take anyone who will lie against you as a witness. the OAH admin court is rigged the judges are rubber stampers for the state . A lot of laws need to be changed ! best to all dealing with these nasty nursing boards. ! NCSBN is behind all of this, if you watch their meetings if anyone of them wants to see the nurses side, they are silenced immediately .

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Specializes in Psych.

I have a disciplined action on my license for failure to disclose an arrest that happened to me 20 years ago. NJ BON are just a bunch of old people who just try to find ways to discipline the nurses. Any complaints and you're pretty much guilty immediately at least in my experience. Luckily I found a good job and now I'm in school for the Wound care program, got my BSN and I feel pretty confident I'll be getting my Psych DNP admission. I've gotten passed the worst I think, but it was maybe 4-5 months that I barely slept thinking my career was ruined. Someone should monitor the BON in each state. They shouldn't have so much power over the nurses' careers.

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WOW!, scary stuff I know. In some states if you have a ding on your license they will not give you the NP. I was told once they get paid for each discipline not sure but seems that way. And why isn't this 'stale" , or SOL up after 20 years , WOW! ! can't really say they are protecting the public ! Sorry this happened, we do know the sleepless nites ! Maybe when you get your psych DNP you can analyze why they do this, I could never put someone through something like this over nothing . take care ! CONGRATS on BSN and DNP

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Specializes in Psych.
8 minutes ago, kuippo said:

In some states if you have a ding on your license they will not give you the NP.

That sucks. Not sure where. I've looked up the states I actually would want to move to like AZ, WA, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, NY, TX and so far they all say they have no issue as long as I don't have any limitations on my license. Just file the paperwork, pay the fee and you're good to go.

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That is correct, and for that reason I have seen RN's who actually do patient harm get dismiss, letter of concern , or DOC so they can get their NP . When the board is not suppose to be looking at future goals to render decisions. In your case , the matter is stale, you are not the same person you were 20 years ago and they cannot find a pattern . Unfortunately some boards will nail a person . (I do not think they will you because of your continued schooling, and reasons above ) . I would not apply or ever work AZ. One person who had a situation like yours 20 +++ yrs ago, was denied license. Because of that, her denial is all over the internet (that is how they do it in some 'shame you" states) So because of that information easily found , she has been unable to secure any jobs without obtaining a 2nd degree in something else. So she never worked a day in AZ but because she applied it ruined her life. And after 10 yrs still refuse to take it off .

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Specializes in Psych.
17 hours ago, kuippo said:

I would not apply or ever work AZ.

So is AZ more difficult than CA? I thought CA would be the most difficult. The only states I actually called to ask about this situation was TX, MA, CT and NY. Those states flat out told me "That's an issue with you and NJ not us. Just put down what NJ got you for and we have no problem issuing you a license."

I'm also with you. Any state that gets this shaming mentality is just terrible. There should be someone policing the BON. They have way too much power. What other states should I be careful that are known to shame nurses so I don't try to apply there?

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Wouldn't BON actions show up on Nursys no matter which state you're in? The system shows if there were actions against your license and your license status in every state you've ever held a license.

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