How easy is it to lose your nursing license?

Nurses Career Support Nursing Q/A

Is it something that you worry about day to day? Every move you make could wind up to you losing your license?

35 Answers

Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

Nurses are fond of saying "my license is on the line". It's relatively rare to permanently loose one's license. Having suspensions is more common. Your BON should publish those with suspensions and revocations.

Most people loose their license over drugs and alcohol.

I've seen a nurse get suspended for a year for giving a medication without an order thinking the doc would back her up....wrong.

I know someone whose license got suspended because she accidentally gave dilaudid rather than the prescribed morphine. The pt ended up coding. I don't know whether the pt lived or not though.

She's currently taking refresher nursing courses to get her license back. Her license is suspended for 3 or 4 years. I don't remember exactly.

Do I understand correctly that it is akin to losing your driver's license? Every time you get behind the wheel you put it on the line. Mixing up meds or texting behind the wheel, both can lead to devastating results and I would say its better not to dwell on the fact that you can lose either, just drive, or nurse!

I worry daily about losing my license. It takes just one unintended mistake to lose license. We don't use pyxis machine, but medications are inside bubble packs. This one patient is taking oxycontin ir 20mg scheduled two times a day and also same dose of oxycontin 20mg as PRN. Both packs were next to each other and when patient asked me for PRN medication, I almost took medication out of ir packet. When I double checked and found my mistake, my heart almost dropped and realized how easy it is to lose my license for things like this.

I know anybody from patient to family to employers can report complaints to the BON.

Can nurses with suspended license still practice? Or is it just with probation?

From what I hear it's hard to lose your license - even if you make a medication error. From what I know, you have to make some sort of error that is SO out of the ordinary that you should have known better no matter what the circumstances. And even considering that, it usually has to be multiple errors (from the cases I've read in California). It's either that or you have to be a drug addict and refuse treatment or relapse over and over again. Just show up, do your best at work, and you don't have to worry about your license. (My nursing instructor said to treat every patient like a brother or sister and you have nothing to worry about)

P.S. A nurse at my hospital (this was a few years ago) was deliberating giving medication to a patient (benzos) that were not prescribed. Yes, deliberately - not by accident, but by falsifying paperwork repeatedly. He was fired from the hospital but he still works as an RN with his license. CA seems to be very forgiving.

P.S.S. I've had to call physicians at like 1am for an order of tylenol for fever and they have said things like "Why on earth are you calling me at this hour? It's OK to write an order for tylenol and then I'll sign it when I make my rounds tomorrow. Don't call me for this anymore" But I still call them anyway, totally not worth it.

morte said:

You need to get standing orders for things like this, it is silly to have to call doc in the middle of the noc for this....that said, it must be done until you get the standing orders in place.....

I HATE HATE HATE this situation. It is just STOOOPID!

I hate it when my patient spikes a temp, no tylenol ordered. I deliberate. Page the doc-get the order? Give the tylenol, ask for the order in the morning? Here's how I usually handle it-

1) text page the doc only if I have other things to request or report (bundle 'em up)

2) Check that the patient isn't getting acetaminophen in another med, or that they don't have out of whack LFTs-then give them the med, write a note on the chart asking for the order, document giving the med on the flow sheet.

And yes, I feel the burden of responsibility as it is not my place to "prescribe" any medication. There are some docs that would rather be paged.

No, I don't worry about losing my license every day. Certainly not for this. But if my assignment is too heavy for one RN, or if there is a situation I know I can't handle, you bet I will loudly make a stink. Cause if I don't, I'm just ASKING to hurt a patient. (and lose my license)

Specializes in LTC (LPN-RN).
ms.RN said:

Can nurses with suspended license still practice? Or is it just with probation?

You would not have lost it over one med error. However at my facility the written warning stay on file for 10 months I think, then drops off. I am unsure if every med error is reported to the state. someone in management would know. And then, each facility is different.

Specializes in ER OR LTC Code Blue Trauma Dog.

I have seen some places simply write a Tylenol order PRN for ALL admissions unless they are specifically allergic or there are contraindications etc.

That way, there is no need to call (nag?) the doc at 3 AM for the order. ?? Perhaps the docs who are complaining about your phone calls in the middle of the night should realize that writing this order as standard procedure would avoid all this annoying inconvenience and trouble in the first place. ??:idea:

Sheesh..lol

Specializes in Operating Room.

A member of my state's BON gave a lecture in class about this. He had us guess what percentage of nurses lose their license each year. He was quite amused when one classmate said 20% LOL. In actuality, he says its pretty hard to lose your license and its only 1%.

Nurses are fond of saying "my license is on the line". It's relatively rare to permanently loose one's license. Having suspensions is more common. Your BON should publish those with suspensions and revocations.

Most people loose their license over drugs and alcohol.

I've seen a nurse get suspended for a year for giving a medication without an order thinking the doc would back her up....wrong.

Looking at the revocations in the BON publications of the states I'm licensed in, most are r/t substance abuse or flat out lying, as in falsification in documenting things that clearly never happened, etc.

Fairly rare to see a revocation from an honest error.

Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.

Two words took many of my daily worries away:

Specializes in Rehab, critical care.

I worried when I first started practicing as a nurse, but I didn't worry about it anymore after a few months because I know that I'm a good nurse, and I chart everything. I never worry about it. You have to be a pretty bad nurse/neglectful/kill a patient by making a huge error (which you won't so long as you're careful)/steal narcs to lose your license.

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