Safe Harbor question

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Specializes in L&D; Post-Op Med/Surg.

Was told I could possibly get 7 patients which is 1 more than we're supposed to get on a very busy floor. When I asked a nurse whose been there for 10 years if she's ever done it, she flipped out & said everyone (8 people) who have filed that since she's been here (10 years) have been fired shortly after. Thoughts?

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

Safe Harbor exists only in Texas, which is an at-will employment state.

I have been living and working in Texas for the past seven years, and unfortunately, employers seriously frown upon nurses who invoke Safe Harbor when staffing situations arise. Management views these nurses as trouble-makers.

Although the employer is really terminating the nurse's employment for filing a Safe Harbor report, they would never document this as the official reason for the termination. The powers that be will almost always conjure up a hard-to-disprove reason for the firing such as insubordination, misconduct, etc.

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Specializes in pediatrics; PICU; NICU.

Please forgive my ignorance but what is "Safe Harbor"? I live in Illinois so if it exists only in Texas that would explain why I don't know about it.

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

help! need information about "safe harbor act"! - nursing for nurses

safe harbor - nursing for nurses

from Tx bon: request for safe harbor peer review

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Specializes in L&D; Post-Op Med/Surg.

Thanks "The Commuter" I was wondering if that was the norm response from employers.

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After reading the title of the thread, I thought this was going to be a question about the legal act of a parent leaving a child at a "safe harbor" such as a hospital or police station instead of the illegal act of abandonment. Then I realized it was Safe Haven I was thinking of!

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming, already in progress....

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My sleep deprived brain actually thought the thread would be about literal "safe harbors" for boats caught in a storm. I was curious to find out how this would be related to nursing.... Anyways, it all sounds like reason number 983 I'm glad to be a unionized nurse....

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Specializes in Emergency Room, Trauma ICU.
After reading the title of the thread, I thought this was going to be a question about the legal act of a parent leaving a child at a "safe harbor" such as a hospital or police station instead of the illegal act of abandonment. Then I realized it was Safe Haven I was thinking of!

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming, already in progress....

That's what I was thinking too! Never heard of safe harbor before!

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

LOL - despite widespread beliefs about how 'backward' TX is, we are actually pretty advanced when it comes to our nurse practice act & legislation to protect patient safety. We were the first state to have a legally defined "nurse-patient duty" waaaaay back in 1983 (http://tx.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.19830303_0040381.TX.htm/). Essentially, Tx RNs have a legally defined responsibility to patients as defined by our scope of practice - that cannot be over-ridden by the "doctor patient relationship". This is radically different than the traditional 'captain of the ship' model for health care liability that is still followed in other states.

We also have a long-standing requirement for formal Peer Review structure & process (FAQ - Peer Review) by any provider that employs 10 or more RNs. Safe Harbor is the latest legislation. But it is slightly different in that it offers whistleblower protections to the individual nurse who makes the claim. Safe Harbor data must be analyzed and incorporated into the organization's Patient Safety/Quality Improvement efforts. As you can see from this site (http://info.sos.state.tx.us/pls/pub/readtac$ext.TacPage?sl=R&app=9&p_dir=&p_rloc=&p_tloc=&p_ploc=&pg=1&ti=22&ch=217&rl=19 - any nurse leader who fails to fulfill his/her responsibility is personally in violation of not only our NPA but also state law.... so could not only lose nursing license but also be subjected to legal penalties.

Safe Harbor does NOT indemnify a nurse from corrective action for violations of the NPA or the employer's P&P.... so it is not a "get out of jail" card that can be used to complain about an "unfair" assignment or an alternative method for workplace grievances. Those would be considered 'bad faith' (spurious) claims and could definitely be grounds for termination.

We have a pretty complex system of laws in TX, so nurses need to make sure that they educate themselves and understand how to utilize these safeguards. That's the main reason that anyone who wants a TX license has to complete the "Jurisprudence" education. The Tx BON conducts regularly scheduled workshops in all regions of the state & these are very informative.

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