disciplinary nightmare

[rosieposie]

hello....I am looking for some light at the end of my tunnel. I am going infront of the BON in Jan 04". what had happened was before i had my licsence, while i was working in a MD's office , I wrote RN on some of the charts after my entries of contacting pt's with the results of labs and so forth after the MD would review them. I honestly did not know. I just thought you weren't liscensed and certainlly could not perform as a Nurse. Not to mention I did nothing that a nurse would do. I have hired an RN atty (which is so costly) and she really hasnt said much (nervewracking). I'm just so worried and confused. This all happened when I had no lic. now they want to take my lic away for 2 years!!!! please someone give me advice or try to calm me & im going out of my mind. Also, if anyone could tell me wha t this is going to be like at the hearing that would be great too....Thanks for anyones help...I will be soooo grateful....

[CseMgr1, ASN, RN]

Keep the faith. It will ALL come out in the wash, ok? :kiss Take care of yourself and that baby FIRST!

[flashpoint]

Any updates on this?

[Agnus]

Agnus, I want to clarify. I did not mean to imply guilt when I asked how she decided to hire an attorney.

Also, a court of law and a board of nursing inquiry are 2 very different situations.

There is no judge, no jury- at the Board of Nursing inquiry.

This is not a trial.

The Board for the most part- is made up of your peers.

People who have RN liscenses and have worked as RN's.

They want to know one thing - - "how did this happen?"

There is one similarity with legal law. Ignorance of the nursing law is not considered a valid defense.

QUOTE]

I undrstand the function of the BON. I know this is not a trial. I know it is generally made up of peers, (although the degree of this varies from state to state)

I agree about ignorance of the law.

There is no difference between what you call nuring law and leagal law. They are both statutory law. That is they are part of the states legal statutes.

The BON is not a court room with a judge and jury they are a regulating board the same as the DMV or any other regulating board.

If you have so many traffic violations the DMV can order surrender of your drivers license just ast the BON can order surrender of a nursing license. It is the DMV that keeps tract of the points on your license not the court. It is the BON that keeps tract of violations of your nursing parctice not the court. Yet both have the full backing of the courts to seperate you from your license and to take other disaplinary action. An order by either of these entities carries the same weight as a court order. Your next step is the courts. If you do not accept a ruling by a regultory agency you go next throught the court system with apeals.

Regulating boards like the DMV or BON are the states expert pannel on that particular sets of statutory laws. They make recomendations to the legislator about enacting certain things as law. Neither the BON nor the DMV makes the law. These must be made by the legislative body of the state. No board of nursing nor DMV ever signed anything into law. The legislators do depend heavily on them for thier advice and recomendeations in formulating law.

[Agnus]

Rosieposey,

Can't understand your stupidity, but have read most of the great posts about how to deal with it. If you're allowed to have an attorney at your hearing you're in a better position than I am. I was fired because my boss found it easier to **** can me, after a 20 year career as an ER nurse, and make me inelegible for unemployment by getting a security guard who had a grudge against me say that he found a wine bottle in my locker. I am now unhireable as a nurse, so my career is effectively over. I have a "hearing" on Tuesday that could re-instate me with back wages and quietly transfer me to another shift and another ER on the other side of town. I am not allowed to have my lawyer at my "hearing", so I have to be my own lawyer at the hearing. Believe me, as soon as I realized I was in trouble at work, I called my attorneys. They have adivised me through the disciplinary process and pointed out when administration was non-compliant with hospital policy.

Best of luck with your hearing. Read and heed the advice you've gotten thus far, and establish your own nursing adivisory network.

Jon in Detroit.:kiss

I did not know that you were born knowing everyting about nursing. Calling someone stupid because they lacked information is well....

I hope you were not so stupid that you did not challange an un witnessed search of your locker.

It is true lockers can be searched at any time. However, even in a work setting there needs to be good reason and if at all possible a locker search should only be done with you present. If one locker is searched they all need to be searched. Locker searches must be witnessed to protect both the employer and you.

That also means you are entitled to have a witness present too.

Stupid is not the word that fit you in your situation and is definately not appropriately used to describe this misinformed nurse.

[fiestynurse]

Here's an interesting website that you may want to check out:

http://www.nursedefenders.org/

[sjoe]

ccu writes: "Talk to your Lawyer at length prior to this proceeding. Being that you are stressing over it now I would talk to the lawyer ASAP to attempt to alleviate some of your fears. Tell the lawyer that you want to know exactly what will happen to best of his/her knowledge or barring that best guess. ask if s/he has handled other cases like this and what happened with those."

Why would ANYONE be paying an attorney who did not keep them informed AND who did not answer their questions fully?

[rosieposie]

hello again everyone....

just checking around and wanted to let everyone know the status....havent gone infront of the board yet....had my baby girl in april....my little angel!!.....but unfortunately this is starting up again.....i will let everyone know what happens...take care

[Critical care rn]

I would be honest and admit you made a mistake. I really don't understand why your School of Nsg would not have made clear to you about how to sign your name. However this is all water under the bridge. Move on, be humble, arrange with your lawyer, to at least ask for probation, if that is the only option. For you personally, if you are having a hard time dealing, I would think about some professional councilling. You need to take care of yourself and your unborn baby.

[pgrsctrn2be]

Been in front of the board of nursing several years ago, positive outcome by the way. Any way the advice from the others is in the mark!!! Good eye contact and take your time answering questions, don't volunteer any information only answer the questions. Congrats on the baby!!!

All will be fine be sure of this!

Mary RN

[hipab4hands]

To the OP: For the life of me, I cannot figure out how this wasn't taught to you in school. Your faculty should be horsewhipped if they didn't tell you. Sorry to say this, but I'm way over in the non-believer column on this one. Why on earth take boards if you graduate as an "RN"?

Good luck to you, and as someone else advised, BE VERY HUMBLE AND CONTRITE.

Same here. We applied for and recieved a temporary license known as IPN (Interium Permit Nurse) that allowed us to apply for jobs and get hired. The permits were good for only 90 days, by which, you should have passed the NCLEX and recieved a Nursing Licence as an RN.

While having the IPN license, we still had to sign our names on charts as Nurse X, IPN--not RN. It was made very clear by our Nursing School and employers that we were not RN's until officially notified by the Nursing Board.

Your former Employer is going to have a lot to explaining to do also. Why didn't they verify your credentials, etc.,

[NeuroICURN]

RosiePosie

Today was the first time that I had read this thread. While I also find it hard to believe that you didn't realize that you could not sign RN after your name, I can also somewhat believe that it truly may have been a mistake. (Can you tell I feel indecisive about it all? LOL) Stranger things have happened. Whatever the truth is, I think you have definately learned from your mistake and are sorry for what you have done. I hope that you don't have your license suspended over this.

Also, Congratulations :balloons: on the baby girl!!! I'm a little jealous! :)

To the other poster (W8imp): How did your situation play out???

Both of you, please keep us updated!

[CA CoCoRN, RN]

While acknowledging that all RN programs are NOT the same, what you are proposing is one of the fundamentals that one learns VERY early in any program.

I am having the HARDEST time believing that you didn't know this. Not to doubt your character...but like I said, this is something fundamental. In school, we learned that to hold one's self out as a "nurse" or to use the terms "registered nurse, R.N., RN" without holding an active Registered Nurse license is fraud, practicing nursing without a license.

One of the first things we learned is that once we went into the hospital, our names would be "CA CoCo SN" until we took and PASSED our NCLEX-RN. Even the couple who were LVNs could not sign as LVNs as they were not acting in that capacity during clinicals. They were student RN.

I practiced for three months (of the given 6) as an RN-IP. Every time I signed anything, until I received my license in the mail, IP (interim permit) followed those RN letters.

One of our mandatory books in college was the [CA] Nurse Practice Act.