Nursing without license

TouchstoneRN · Nov 10, 2006

First of all, License verification sites are public record and can be viewed by anyone. In each case the name and SS# of the nurse was on the Verification site. Second the nurse who discovered it brought the findings to the unit manager's attention who then called the nurses at home and discussed the situation with them. The one nurse never had a license because she was hired as a GN and then took the boards three times and failed all three times. She failed to mention this fact to our unit manager and continued to work under the presumption that she was still a nurse. The other two nurses admitted to having expired licenses and are currently trying to clear things up. I know that when my license was up for renewal I received a paper with my paycheck reminding me to get it renewed two months prior.

txspadequeenRN, BSN, RN · Nov 10, 2006

This is true I went to the Texas BON and you can enter your SS#, license # or name and all the info pops up. I dont know if I like all my information just popping up and just anyone and everyone being able to view it.. But thats just the way it is I guess...

First of all, License verification sites are public record and can be viewed by anyone. In each case the name and SS# of the nurse was on the Verification site. Second the nurse who discovered it brought the findings to the unit manager's attention who then called the nurses at home and discussed the situation with them. The one nurse never had a license because she was hired as a GN and then took the boards three times and failed all three times. She failed to mention this fact to our unit manager and continued to work under the presumption that she was still a nurse. The other two nurses admitted to having expired licenses and are currently trying to clear things up. I know that when my license was up for renewal I received a paper with my paycheck reminding me to get it renewed two months prior.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Nov 10, 2006

I'm assuming you are doing this for a report or a paper you are writing? Call your state board of nursing. If anyone or any entity knows or has information about this, they will. Also, you might check your state nursing law to see if there are any references in the law to information about licensing and legality of practice. Sometimes this information is listed in the historical section of how the law evolved.

angelcharm · Nov 10, 2006

the hopspitals who tolerated deceit should also be charged!

putting a nurse imposter could lead to double jeopardy.

babynurselsa, RN · Nov 10, 2006

In my state the facility can be fined by I believe the state board of health for allowing a nurse to work without a valid license. A facility I worked at a fe wyears ago used to rather lax about making sure current staff had renewed on time. They were fined a rather large amount. After that they were pretty religious about keeping track.

destiny5 · Nov 11, 2006

Isn't it HR's job to verify licenses? Don't we have enough to do as nurses becides checking our co-workers licenses? Like a previous poster said, there could be several reasons why there name doesn't come up. As far as ss# are concerned..I hope my co-workers don't have mine readily available. What ever happened to privacy? When I checked to see if I had an official license # (new grad)--- it was disturbing to see that not only did it give my name and license # it also gave my address with city & state. It's pretty scary the personal information you can get on the internet. I have enough things to do ie: taking care of patients, charting, ect.... toooo much to be looking up licenses --- geez

DeLana_RN, BSN, RN · Nov 11, 2006

I worked for a company once (it had been acquired by another company which apparently didn't do any background checks initially) that had a well-respected, knowledgeable nurse manager who had been on the job for years - only she never took boards.

She ended up in the federal pen.

DeLana

P.S. After that, they were paranoid about checking credentials :lol2: - and I was wondering why the manager in my next interview at a different place looked puzzled when I showed her my nursing license....

PANurseRN1 · Nov 11, 2006

First of all, License verification sites are public record and can be viewed by anyone. In each case the name and SS# of the nurse was on the Verification site. Second the nurse who discovered it brought the findings to the unit manager's attention who then called the nurses at home and discussed the situation with them. The one nurse never had a license because she was hired as a GN and then took the boards three times and failed all three times. She failed to mention this fact to our unit manager and continued to work under the presumption that she was still a nurse. The other two nurses admitted to having expired licenses and are currently trying to clear things up. I know that when my license was up for renewal I received a paper with my paycheck reminding me to get it renewed two months prior.

People have that much free time at work to be searching co-workers' license status? Wow...most of us barely have time for a BR break or to scarf down some food, let along surf the net.

BSNtobe2009 · Nov 12, 2006

I went on my state's nursing board and saw the cases of the licenses that were suspended or revoked. It also had a PDF document that had every single document attached to it, with the letter they sent to the nurse, the criminal charge if that was the reason for the suspension, etc.

However, at the end of every letter where they notified the nurse it said, "It is YOUR responsibility to inform your employer regarding your license suspension..." and went on to talk about it being a criminal offense to practice without a license, etc.

I would bet that notification isn't unique and probably many states have it.

PANurseRN1 · Nov 12, 2006

Wow. My state just says if the license is in good standing or not. If there's been any disciplinary action you have to request that info from the prothonotary's office.

P_RN, ADN, RN · Nov 12, 2006

It's like that on my BON....with a list of disciplinary actions, the charge, the decision, the result, and the suspension or recision of the license. It goes way back I think to '99. On the physician site though , there are many that are "unnamed physician or unnamed charges." Doesn't seem fair does it?

hollyvk, BSN · Nov 12, 2006

Why don't we have a perfect world where info about licensure problems is promptly reported to employers and where employers are always on the ball in tracking licensure status?

Mostly money and manpower, but also priorities and attention to details.

Of course nurses are always responsible for informing their employers regarding problems with their licensure status, but often the boards aren't that efficient in doing that they are suppose to do in a timely manner.

In my state, fiscal belt tightening got rid of continuing ed requirements for nursing a decade ago (too expensive of a program to maintian, the heck with the value of it to the public in ensuring that nurses stay up to date with changes in medical care/nursing). I have now just been through the bi-annual licensure renewal process. This year the BON included a required questionnaire as part of the renewal process. My license expired at the end of September. I mailed in my renewal on Sept. 13th, they deposited my check on the 15th. Come the end of the month I had no license and no explanation as to why (it was "in process" they said). Five weeks later I was informed that they'd LOST my questionnaire. I then faxed it to them and was renewed the following day.

The only upside to this is that I don't work in patient care and thus didn't need my license to be able to work during the month of October. But I'm betting I was not the only nurse so affected, and that others who needed their licenses to be able to work didn't receive their renewals before their current licenses expired.

An astute employer will not allow a nurse to work without a current license. That's easy to track at the time of hire or at license renewal, but less so with pending examination changes or if something happens between renewals that changes the status of the license. In my situation, the renewal was retroactive back to when my license expired at the end of Sept. If I had worked as an RN with a pending renewal status license, I would not have been legal, but in reality the legal penalties would not be as severe as if I had done so with a revoked or a non-renewed license.

And to the original poster of this thread, my concern is if your employer is not focusing sufficient attention on one of the most basic tenets of safe patient care (current, valid personnel licensure), what else are they not doing that impacts patient care and patient safety? Does your continued employment with this employer indicate your tacit approval of such lassitude? And while it's easy to be unhappy with (former) co-workers who did not comply with licensure requirements, I think you have misfocused your attention from where the real problem lies, which is that your employer allowed this situation to happen.

HollyVK, RN (for another 2 yrs), BSN, JD

I went on my state's nursing board and saw the cases of the licenses that were suspended or revoked. It also had a PDF document that had every single document attached to it, with the letter they sent to the nurse, the criminal charge if that was the reason for the suspension, etc.
However, at the end of every letter where they notified the nurse it said, "It is YOUR responsibility to inform your employer regarding your license suspension..." and went on to talk about it being a criminal offense to practice without a license, etc.
I would bet that notification isn't unique and probably many states have it.