Letter of Admonition...A Career Death Sentence? bv

[Verbal425]

I have been an ICU Nurse for 15 years. About 1/2 way into my career, I was accused of being too rough with a patient while preventing him from kicking a co-worker. I quit that job the morning I was made aware of the accusation (which was a huge mistake in retrospect) and quickly got another ICU job. 18 months later, I received a Letter of Admonition from my state's Board of Nursing. For those of you who are not familiar with an LOA, it's basically a slap on the wrist stating go forth and do no harm. But it's a permanent mark on your nursing license and you must acknowledge it when applying for a job or a license in another state. When my employer found out about it, they did not fire me since they were happy with my patient care (I received large numbers of patient satisfaction letters). I quit my job in mid 2011 (another mistake in hindsight), and have not been able to get a nursing job ever since. Recruiters call me every day because they are impressed with my resume, but when I tell them about the LOA, they say "Good luck" and that's the end of it. Has anyone else faced this dilemma? I was told a LOA was not a big deal, but it seems to have ended my nursing career. No one out there seems to want to give me a second chance.

[DoGoodThenGo]

LOA's are a matter of public record and are permanent. It wasn't a matter of getting up and deciding to quit, it was a matter of reoccuring stressful situations (patient safety concerns) that lead to a panic attack. Also, I tried to transfer to another of the umbrella company's facilities but my manager gave me a bad reference even though I received so many customer satisfaction comments for 4 years in a row while in her unit. I wonder if their is a statute of limitations on the LOA? The incident happened 7 years ago, but the LOA was issued a little over 5 years ago. At the time the complaint was made, a nurse (meaning myself in this case) was not allowed to speak on their on behalf at the hearing. You had one chance to respond, in writing, to the complaint. I believe that rule has since changed.

While letters of admonition/reprimand are permanent marks on one's record they can be appealed. Of course this process will vary by state, but here is a peek into one nurse's attempts to vacate a LOA on her record: No.

[Verbal425]

Thing like this just make me crazy about the nursing profession. If you killed someone you would be allowed to defend yourself in court, yet any Joe can walk in off the street and make an allegation against us and we have our livelihoods put at stake as a result. No other profession would put up with being treated this way, so why do we?

I know, since then I've been feeling as if criminals have more rights than nurses. As far as appeal, I believe the statute of limitations is a factor. I agree, should seek a lawyer for advice.

Thanks everybody. It's nice to be able to share and get feedback from comrades in arms.

[caliotter3]

You can find an attorney experienced in nursing matters here: www.taana.org Good luck.

[Bedgar1]

Is a "Letter of Concern" the same thing? I had my LPN license reinstated with a letter of concern.... NOW I am moving to another state, have already had an LPN position offered to me and accepted, and am in the process of sending in my application for licensure in that state. It asks if my license has ever been "disciplined"..... is the letter of concern a "discipline'? They did reinstate my license, just with the caution, in the letter....HELP! nEED TO SEND THIS IN ASAP and don't want to lie, but don't want to disclose anything that's not necessary either.....

Thanks!