What happens if a nurse loses her license?

[redhead09]

I'm just curious, if a nurse loses their license for some reason, can she/he ever get it back? If so what does she have to do in order to obtain it?

I'm watching ER and watching the nurse make some pretty out there presumptious decisions and it got me thinkin :)

If all goes well I will be a nurse by next spring but so many things scare me (like losing my license!).

[catlynLPN]

I think it all depends on the severity of the inappropriate actions of the nurse.

Some disciplinary levels give probabtion for a period of time, sometimes the nurse has to pay a fine and/or take classes to keep her license or to continue practicing.

It just all depends on what she did to begin with.

I try hard to protect my license, but mistakes do happen. None of us are perfect.

I am just grateful I've never been in any trouble so far.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Nurses do lose their license, but it isn't common, so try not to worry about it, even though nurses are fond of throwing out the "I'm not putting my license on the line" phrase as if there's some big brother watching their every move waiting to take away your license at the drop of a hat. The majority of nurses loosing their license around here in Florida is because of drug diversion.

Usually there's a time limit: such as "permanently revoked", or another time frame and one has to petition the board and do what they say to get it back. I knew a nurse that lost her's for a year for practicing medicine without a license when she gave an Ativan that was ordered "while intubated" to an extubated patient. She had to jump through a lot of hoops, including some monitoring once she was allowed to return to practice.

[redhead09]

That is so scary to me! That seems like a simple mistake! I feel like I just have information shoved in me at school and I can barely remember any of it yet. I hope that I can recall it to mind when I need it...

[rhondaa83]

I have noticed, that if you do the right thing every time, you will never ever have to worry about problems or mistakes.

[racing-mom4, BSN, RN]

I have noticed, that if you do the right thing every time, you will never ever have to worry about problems or mistakes.

and document-document-document---if you dont document well basically you didnt do it....I take that extra min to make sure I document every phone call to Dr/Supervisor/even other RN...now it is such a habit it doesnt even seem like it takes a second to write "Spoke wtih Dr XYZ-updated him on pts resp status-no new orders given at this time"

[CheyRN]

I knew a nurse that lost her's for a year for practicing medicine without a license when she gave an Ativan that was ordered "while intubated" to an extubated patient. She had to jump through a lot of hoops, including some monitoring once she was allowed to return to practice.

This scares me right out of my scrubs, because I have worked in a couple of LTC settings that have orders to crush meds and give via PEG tube and, when the Pt. starts taking meds PO, they never bothered to get the orders changed to PO. Working nights is a hard time to get things changed, and I'm uncomfortable holding cardiac meds that the Pt. has been on "forever" because of a route discrepencey.