Nursing License Revocation

What trends have you seen?

The Pennsylvania board sends out a newsletter quarterly or yearly, and the most common reason seems to be drug misuse. Although a small section appear to be nurses who assault their patients. Very sad, I am glad this information doesn't get out to the general public, because it makes us look very bad.

I frequent a general purpose discussion board where someone posted a message about having his nursing license revoked. I'm going to be entering nursing school this fall and got to wondering, what are the most usual reasons that nursing licenses are revoked? Malpractice? Drug abuse? Insubordination?

What trends have you seen?

I live in Texas and you really have to have a series of significant issues in order to have a license revoked. However, it is relatively easy to report a nurse to the Board and the Board is obligated to investigate every complaint. I have known several nurses who have been reported to the board for a myriad of minor and flat out incorrect reasons. I have a friend who is a state nurse surveyor for nursing homes and she has reported nurses who have stolen drugs and falsified patient records, these people have not lost licenses (may have been sanctioned though) and reports she has seen them re-employed at another nursing home. Most hospitals participate in an internal Peer Review process whereas nursing errors are evaluated by a panel of nurses at the hospital and it is determined by that panel whether to report to the Board. This is to help curb the number of minor incidents being reported to the Board. Usually if a nurse has 3 minor incidents, she is brought to Peer Review. Peer Review is not intended to be punitive but to evaluate for system improvements and to allow the nurse the opportunity to receive guidance. This is no fool-proof solution. I have known nurses who write incident reports for everything under the sun and combine those with a manager who has poor judgement and you will send staff to peer review for minor issues and eventually it will be viewed as punitive and will ultimately discourage self-reporting and reporting of near-misses. New staff are easy targets for this kind of situation. The facility where I work has 2 forms, one is for incident reports and the other is a "fix-it" form. Staff are encouraged to use the incident report for issues that need to be reviewed by the hospital risk mangement and may pose legal issues. The "fix-it" form is really for the minor petty crap that nurses report on one another -- issues like not totaling I&O's or behaivioral problems, items that don't pose a signifcant threat to patient welfare and really do not merit an incident report.

Jeez. I know that "drug impairment" is a significant problem for nurses, but that statistic is frightening.

General information about a suspension is publicly accessable in my state. The BON in my state has a web site, doesnt list particulars but leafing through the registered professional lists you can come across those who have been sanctioned and/or suspended.