How is it possible to lose license in one state and be able to practice in another?

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I was at work a couple of nights ago and I overheard another nurse talking about something that happened a few years back, she had mentioned she had to do remedial education and anger management, so being curious about it I looked her up, and it shows her license has been suspended in another state in 2004. She was indicted w/ abuse/neglect charges. Im just curious how she is still practicing? Just doesnt seem right.

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idk...maybe she had a license in more than one state before she lost the one in one of them so is able to still work under the other one she had. That would be my guess.

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
I was at work a couple of nights ago and I overheard another nurse talking about something that happened a few years back, she had mentioned she had to do remedial education and anger management, so being curious about it I looked her up, and it shows her license has been suspended in another state in 2004. She was indicted w/ abuse/neglect charges. Im just curious how she is still practicing? Just doesnt seem right.

Now this is answered with very little knowlege about licensure law....

The state gave her a license, the hospital/unit decided to hire her. Although it may not seem right, I'm not sure there is much you can/should do about it. (plus, there may be a lot to the story that you don't know about)

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Specializes in Peds Homecare.

It may take some time, but if indeed she lost her license in one state, she cannot legally use another one from a different state. Also, if it was only taken away for a certain period of time, it would tell you all the details. Go back and read the info again. If it was 2004, she has had to renew her license in the state where she is. No BON, allows you to not mention misdeeds from another state. And eventually you get caught up with. It's only a matter of time.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

It's not as hard as you think. Not all states do a good job of investigating people applying for reciprocity. I've known of a few cases where that happened. I've also known of people who lose their license then somehow manage to tapdance to get it reinstated. It's actually pretty sad.

FYI, it's no different for MD's either. I knew of an MD who finally lost his license 6 years after an incident of clear negligance. (I know first hand as I was involved.) He managed to talk the medical board into reinstating his license after he did remediation. A total joke. This man killed more people than he saved, really took the blinders off my eyes.

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Specializes in Utilization Management; Case Management.
I was at work a couple of nights ago and I overheard another nurse talking about something that happened a few years back, she had mentioned she had to do remedial education and anger management, so being curious about it I looked her up, and it shows her license has been suspended in another state in 2004. She was indicted w/ abuse/neglect charges. Im just curious how she is still practicing? Just doesnt seem right.

I thought suspended meant something different than revoked...And if I'm right about the definition then its obvious why she's still working, right?

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Specializes in cardiology/oncology/MICU.
I thought suspended meant something different than revoked...And if I'm right about the definition then its obvious why she's still working, right?

You must be right. Plus in my state if you are caught doing something wrong the BON will give you the choice of Rehab or counseling or whatever suits your problem. (I haven't need any of this yet);)

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Specializes in ED, CTSurg, IVTeam, Oncology.
I was at work a couple of nights ago and I overheard another nurse talking about something that happened a few years back, she had mentioned she had to do remedial education and anger management, so being curious about it I looked her up, and it shows her license has been suspended in another state in 2004. She was indicted w/ abuse/neglect charges. Im just curious how she is still practicing? Just doesnt seem right.

No offense, but what doesn't "seem right" is the fact that you've taken it upon yourself to investigate a colleague when your state BON has probably already decided that whatever it was that she did, professional corrections were since made and that she is now deemed safe and ready for continued practice. IMHO, one needs to trust their Board of Nursing; they're not all so stupid to the point that they have to rely solely on nursing gossip before they launch investigations to find out about bad nurses. Moreover, if the nurse you're so interested in genuinely had something to hide, I don't think that she would be talking about it so freely that anyone could easily eavesdrop and have their interest piqued, like your's obviously was. At any rate, I sincerely hope that whatever "curiosity" you had has since been fully satisfied.

As for the BON disciplinary action definitions:

Suspended: temporary loss of license, can be lifted once BON is satisfied

Restricted: conditions placed on license (eg. not handling narcotics)

Revoked: permanent loss of license

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Specializes in LTC, Memory loss, PDN.

Doctors do it all the time.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
No offense, but what doesn't "seem right" is the fact that you've taken it upon yourself to investigate a colleague when your state BON has probably already decided that whatever it was that she did, professional corrections were since made and that she is now deemed safe and ready for continued practice. IMHO, one needs to trust their Board of Nursing; they're not all so stupid to the point that they have to rely solely on nursing gossip before they launch investigations to find out about bad nurses. Moreover, if the nurse you're so interested in genuinely had something to hide, I don't think that she would be talking about it so freely that anyone could easily eavesdrop and have their interest piqued, like your's obviously was. At any rate, I sincerely hope that whatever "curiosity" you had has since been fully satisfied.

As for the BON disciplinary action definitions:

Suspended: temporary loss of license, can be lifted once BON is satisfied

Restricted: conditions placed on license (eg. not handling narcotics)

Revoked: permanent loss of license

Anyone can look up your license......it is public knowledge with access on the internet........try it it's easy. With travel nursing the way it is now........... if the discipline action is in a compact state and you are practicing in a non-compact state the states do not report to each other so it is entirely possible to practice in one state while suspended in another. BON's don't talk to each other......compact state talk to compact states and non-compact states to non-compact states. If you look up someone's license....you need to know what state to look in...there is NOT a collective website that lists all nurses with what licenses that RN has in all states. With travel nursing being more popular andnurses holding multiple licenses...this will become more of an issue than it already is...

The Op stated she was talking and the person in question had to be doing a lot of talking in order for the OP to know what state to look up...........so somebody had loose lips.....:rolleyes:.

If the license is suspended in one state and she hasn't cleared it.....it varie whether she can practice in another state legally. For all we know where she works now knows all about it and likes her just the same....;)

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Just another example of why a national nursing license would be very convenient and sufficient!

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