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I have not seen any forums related to this and seem to still have more questions than solid answers, so I post this for all of you woderful people to read and comment on. I am hoping to get some type of clarification for knowledge sake. For an example, I will use this senario- An RN who has a child. This said child one day decided to report to someone that the mom(RN) has been abusing and sexually inapproriatly touching this child for years. This child decided to place themself in a potentially dangerous situation than to continue to take the abuse...like jumping out of a moving car to get away from being punched in the face...). Child is taken to ER at the facility where mom(RN) works but not in the ER, child requires many stitches and after police are called by ER staff, goes to foster care protection. Situation then changes to child going to live with dad and dad being awarded custody of child. Mom(RN) then decides to refuse to let child have any of their clothes, music, books, bike...etc and continues to verbally place threatening limits on child (ie. example- I wouldn't keep all your stuff away from you if you hadn't...fill in the blank, it's all your fault anyway). So now, child is away from mom(RN) and tells dad about him waking up in the middle of the night with mom(RN) laying in twin bed with her hand in child's pants caressing privates. Child also stated that mom(RN) used to always give kisses that resulted in dark red hickys on child. So, if you were listening to this story...what would your thoughts be and what actions would you try to do? Keep in mind this mom is an RN and is in a position of teaching nursing students. Thanks so much for any input.
i just wanted to remind everyone, according to the original post, the child already went to foster care and then ended up in the custody of the father. so, the authorities have already been involved.what else is there to do?
i thought the op was wanting to know about notifying the bon.
granted, the "authorities" (as far as the child abuse) have been notified; however, it doesn't seem as though the bon has ben notified.
the op also sounds very ... bothered? ... concerned? ... that the nurse in question works with nursing students.
the details given are sketchy, but that is probably prudent, given that the situation has not gone to trial at this point.
to the op: you obviously don't have an obligation to report the abuse, since the abuse has already been reported and the child removed from the situation. regarding the question about the bon: i think you need to look at your state's nurse practice act. my guess would be that you are obligated to report any professional misconduct, or suspected professional misconduct, to them (the bon).
does child abuse constitute professional misconduct? i don't know, but i would hope so. if getting a dui when off work is reportable, then i most certianly hope that child abuse is reportable as well.
it would then be up to the bon to investigate or not, as they see fit.
i understand what others are saying about "mind your own business." however, if you have a good-faith belief that this nurse abused a child, my personal opinion is that you need to report it to the bon. someone that abuses a child -- esp one's own -- is going to be at high risk for abusing a patient.
what if she is innocent?what if the child is making it all up? that would be a horrible mistake to make, and a horrible thing to have to go through for the nurse.
however, to me it is similar to not reporting suspicion of diverting narcotics/substance abuse at work because of fear of being wrong. we are obligated to protect the public. if we wait until we know someone is practicing impaired, someone will most likely be harmed in the meantime.
Do you actually think the BON should be notifiied before someone is actually convicted of a crime? I disagree with that. We are presumed innocent until proven guilty in the United States.
They have to remove children to protect the children from possible abuse, but there HAVE been cases of false accusations, false memory elicitation by social workers and psychologists, children manipulated by non-custodial parents into giving false testimony, etc. Therefore, there IS a trial by jury for the accused.
I'm alarmed by the "golly, she should be reported to the BON" contingent here -- since when do we report allegations of child abuse to the BON? What's next? Gee, I was driving home the other day and I saw a coworker who had been pulled over by the police and it looked like he was writing her a ticket -- I guess I should call up the BON and tell them she's probably an usafe driver! I was out with some friends Friday night and saw a coworker who had had too much too drink and was making a fool of himself in the bar -- I guess I should report him to the BON! After all, I have a duty to protect the public from unsafe nurses ... :icon_roll
I'm alarmed by the "golly, she should be rep.orted to the BON" contingent here -- since when do we report allegations of child abuse to the BON? What's next? Gee, I was driving home the other day and I saw a coworker who had been pulled over by the police and it looked like he was writing her a ticket -- I guess I should call up the BON and tell them she's probably an usafe driver! I was out with some friends Friday night and saw a coworker who had had too much too drink and was making a fool of himself in the bar -- I guess I should report him to the BON! After all, I have a duty to protect the public from unsafe nurses ... :icon_roll
oh, please.
we're not talking about minor infractions.
and we're not even comparing apples to apples.
child abuse is a major offense, unlike a parking ticket.
and if one is capable of abuse to their child, they're capable of it to other vulnerable populations.
it IS professional misconduct, at the very least.
jls, when you talk about psychologists filling client's head w/junk, this has typically been reserved for the adult client, with a dx of ptsd.
i've read many stories about the false memory syndrome.
thankfully it is not a common phenomena.
leslie
That's not true, Leslie. There have been many cases of children being influenced by interviewers with agendas. There was a case years ago where a whole church was accused of being a child sex abuse ring, and several families were ruined, and the whole thing turned out to be false.
That's not true, Leslie. There have been many cases of children being influenced by interviewers with agendas. There was a case years ago where a whole church was accused of being a child sex abuse ring, and several families were ruined, and the whole thing turned out to be false.
i do appreciate these sentiments and concerns.
but when i think of actual child abuse vs bogus allegations, the actual is still going to supersede the alleged.
and i have seen so many children reunited w/their biological parent(s), even after being grossly abused by them.
heck, i've been involved in sev'l cases.
i know in massachusetts, the system encourages abused child to return to bio parent.
and yes, i have seen loving parents get sucked into the system, all r/t one bogus complaint.
their (dept of social services, dss) priorities are so darned off, it's scary.
much more often than not, these children need some serious protection.
to heck with 'innocent until proven guilty'.
you just know when a child is being abused, esp after meeting the parent(s).
children are highly resilient, and react to trauma much differently than adults.
but these scars will be carried for life, i assure you.
i'm sick to death of being told to mind my business.
i used to...
no more.
leslie
oh, please.we're not talking about minor infractions.
and we're not even comparing apples to apples.
child abuse is a major offense, unlike a parking ticket.
and if one is capable of abuse to their child, they're capable of it to other vulnerable populations.
it IS professional misconduct, at the very least.
jls, when you talk about psychologists filling client's head w/junk, this has typically been reserved for the adult client, with a dx of ptsd.
i've read many stories about the false memory syndrome.
thankfully it is not a common phenomena.
leslie
But I'm not talking about "minor infractions," either -- if I saw my coworker pulled over in traffic by the police, she might have been driving drunk; she might have run someone over and left the scene; she might have done any number of dangerous, illegal things -- so, according to the logic of a number of posters here, I should report her to the BON, right?
The BON is not a lawmaking entity. Once the child has been removed from the situation, then the police are the entity that should be making accusations, not co-workers or those that THINK they know what is going on.
If this person is convicted then and only then does the BON need to know and to be honest, I still don't think people need to be calling the BON themselves.
We are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
But I'm not talking about "minor infractions," either -- if I saw my coworker pulled over in traffic by the police, she might have been driving drunk; she might have run someone over and left the scene; she might have done any number of dangerous, illegal things -- so, according to the logic of a number of posters here, I should report her to the BON, right?
my concern with nurses, is only where it directly could affect the pt population.
and i see your point about a slippery slope:
where does it begin and end?
honestly, i'm not even sure what i would do about a nurse accused of child abuse.
i honestly don't know.
there are many considerations.
but the op stated concern about this nurse not being reported.
i was merely telling him that he could report anonymously.
afterall, the BON is bound by the administrative laws of their state, and even, nation.
i've only reported nurses 3 times in the course of 12 yrs.
ea time, i had absolute proof of remarkable wrongdoing.
i hope the op works through his distress.
leslie
That's not true, Leslie. There have been many cases of children being influenced by interviewers with agendas. There was a case years ago where a whole church was accused of being a child sex abuse ring, and several families were ruined, and the whole thing turned out to be false.
There were a bunch of these cases in the mid-'90s, and nearly all of them were eventually debunked and the supposed "abusers" completely exonerated. There was a case involving a daycare center in my state, and the supposed "perpetrators" actually served several years in prison before they were exonerated and released. And most of these situations arise from people who don't know what they're doing, and who don't have any business getting involved, getting involved ...
Child psych has been my specialty for many years, and I've been directly involved, as a child psych CNS, in plenty of child sexual abuse allegations, and, in my personal experience, a good number of them end up not being substantiated -- not because of some gross miscarriage of justice, but because nothing really happened.
There will be plenty of time to ruin someone's life and career after they've actually been found guilty of something ...
So Leslie, how do you feel about murderers? Murder is a serious crime, more serious than child sexual abuse actually.
Is that serious enough that the person should not be granted due process?
In this case, the OP gave us some extremely disjointed hearsay, about a nurse she knows, accusations have been made, the child has been removed from the home and is now in the custody of the father.
Now she feels as if she needs to also ruin the RNs career before she is even brought before the legal system? Does she think the RN is going to molest her nursing students? She plans to defame her character based on some hearsay that has not been proven in a court of law?
We all know of tragic cases. Usually that's because of the overworked social services, lack of good foster homes, and over abundence of abused kids. But, that doesn't mean that we then seek to ruin people in every way before they have had their say in court!
FireStarterRN, BSN, RN
3,824 Posts
I just wanted to remind everyone, according to the original post, the child already went to foster care and then ended up in the custody of the father. So, the authorities have already been involved.
What else is there to do? If I were "listening to this story" I would feel badly that evil exists in the world, and I would also think 'that's unusual, it's usually men who molest children'. I certainly wouldn't report the mother since she's already been reported. If she gets convicted of child molestation I would assume that there will be repurcussions.
No one here is saying that they don't believe in turning in people for child abuse. But if the child has already been removed from the abusive home, there is nothing left for a casual listener to take further action.