Someone submitted an anonymous complaint to the board of nursing and now I'm under investigation

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I have been a nurse for about 20 years. Recently (5 yrs ago) I got into school nursing and feel like I have finally found my niche. Unfortunately I just went through a really messy divorce, and my ex husband is now with a psychopath who will stop at nothing to destroy me. To make a long story short, my ex lost custody of our child last year. After multiple court filings, police visits to my home, harassment at work, and ridiculous amounts of anxiety........"someone" annonomously reported me to the board of nursing for being racist to kids. It's absolutely not true. I love my students so much and I'm devastated. I have consulted 3 different nurse attorney's and they are so expensive, especially because I'm still paying off the divorce attorney. What can I do? I'm under investigation by the BON and I'm scared. It's crazy to me, I never realized how easy it is to file a complaint online. Should I just switch careers? I can't prevent him from doing this again, even if it's dismissed this time. What other jobs can a seasoned nurse do?

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

If you have , contact them for advice.  A BON purpose is to protect the public, not be an advocate for nurses.   You need a livelihood for your child's support, so consider a nurse -attorney an investment in your career who will support YOU in defense against the board.  Since "anonymous" complaint, with proper lawyer intervention if unfounded., will have no impact on your license.

(((HUGS))) to getting through this trying time.

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Discuss this with your employer. If you're covered under their malpractice they will help support you. You absolutely need an attorney. Someone who specializes in these cases. The board will investigate but likely not find anything. What state are you in? 

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Specializes in ER.

You've got twenty years of nursing and this is the first racism complaint. The complaint didn't come from the kid's parent, or your employer, but from an uninvolved third party. Was that third party present, or is the whole complaint hearsay?

I assume you can name a dozen witnesses to speak about your character, and your approach to different races and cultures. Maybe you can think of some initiatives you were involved in make new students or immigrants mesh with other long standing students.

I also bet that you have a long paperwork record of harassment by the complainant. 
 

This is serious enough to be addressed, but don't worry about it. Let her spew venom and her nature will become self evident. If she files more than one complaint make sure you point out the harassment angle and her relationship with your ex. 
 

I am in the unenviable position of having five complaints made about me, and not one of them affected my license. It was a trip. I'm still practicing, but my level of jadedness has gone up over the decades.

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No the complaint came through annonomously online, and is definitely written as hearsay. I think if anyone from the board actually talked to someone at school, the whole thing would be debunked immediately. I have a lot of proof of harassment so ultimately this will just be added to the binder. Did you have a lawyer for your complaints or did u just respond the the investigation?

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MistyLucy25 said:

Discuss this with your employer. If you're covered under their malpractice they will help support you. You absolutely need an attorney. Someone who specializes in these cases. The board will investigate but likely not find anything. What state are you in? 

Virginia. I'm just so embarrassed to bring it up. Like "hey boss, guess what?" 

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