Well a Board of Nursing would say they are accountable to the public. That they further patient safety. But do they when they not only cause such collateral damage by wiping out the career of much needed experienced nurses but also in permitting unsafe conditions to persist? And they do so regarding false allegations reviewed by non nurses. Often resulting in overdisciplining nurses for mistakes that did not result in patient harm. The result is punitive and not corrective and too often fails to serve the publics good. Read my posted article on collateral damage.
Board of Nursing orders are replete with nurses reporting mitigating circumstances such as unsafe patient assignments, unsafe staffing or other no win situations nurses had no power to change. Nurses often get trapped in such situations where error was predictable to happen and their employer knew it. Nurses all too often are the scapegoats.
So what can a nurse do when she has been unjustly or over charged by the Board? It might surprise you that Board decesions can be made with impunity. There is no where a nurse can turn when a Board's decision is fraught with incompetent errors of review. They answer to no one. Even if your case goes to an Administrative Law Judge the Board of Nursing can completely disregard a Judge's ruling. The Board of Nursing can literally do as they please despite evidence that at least amounts to very reasonable doubt. I would even say they do whatever they please when evidence fails to prove guilt. What other area of the judicial system or regulatory systems can practice with such disregard for truth?
What nurses must do from the onset of a complaint is to be involved in the investigation. The nurse is the most capable of reviewing the evidence and proving the truth. Attorneys often cannot provide the advocacy needed because only the nurse can respond to why the Board may believe what they do. Nurses must be able to have communication with the Investigator to provide rebuttal and correctness to misinterpretation of the evidentiary records. A nurse's case is decided almost entirely on medical and facility produced records. A non nurse is especially challenged to respond to such documentation. The nurse was there and the nurse can uniquely provide insight into what really happened and what the records actually establish. If you utilize the services of an attorney in the investigation phase your case may not recieve the advocacy required in order to prove your innocence or at least prove mitigating circumstances. You need the assistance of an advocate who is a nurse and knows how the disciplinary process works. We can help. Email us at cnlegalnurse@gmail.com