Each year 7,000 nurses have some type of discipline placed on their license. My home State of Indiana has the highest number of nurses on probation. Other top contenders for that dubious title are Texas and Ohio. If you would like to see the discipline imposed in your State, check out the National Council of State Board of Nursing website (www.ncsbn.org) which captures all of the statistics on nurse license discipline.

If your license is placed on probation, the Board wants to watch you to ensure that you are safe to practice. There are some requirements such as keeping the Board apprised of your current address and phone number as well as reports from your supervisors. There may be other requirements such as having your employer sign the final order or having you take continuing education courses. There may even be fines. Some Boards restrict the type of environment in which you can practice or the shifts in which you can practice.

Some Board decisions may direct you to participate in counseling or in your State’s peer assistance program which helps those with addiction problems or who use controlled substances.

Remember, if any action is taken against your license, it will be a public record forever, even if the matter should eventually be dismissed.

To get off probation, a nurse must petition the Board to have the probation lifted after the nurse has met all of the requirements set forth in the probation. In a legal proceeding, under oath and recorded by a court reporter, the nurse must present all evidence and witnesses to show that she is safe to practice and that the conditions that led to her probation no longer exist. She also must demonstrate that she has complied with all the terms of the probation.

I suggest that if you are on probation, you keep all the documents that you submitted that show you were in compliance with probation. Send all documents certified and keep copies of everything.

You can still work on probation but must work harder to find a job. Rather than just submitting an application online, network to find out how to reach the decision maker directly. Probation is not the end of the world but, obviously, avoiding trouble is the best action.

Your license is a privilege and not a right. Just as your driver’s license can be suspended, so can your nursing license. The Board needs only to provide you with reasonable notice which could mean the day before or even, and I have seen it, the morning of a hearing. In the hearing the State must show that you are a clear and immediate danger to the public. If there is a situation with any concern that drugs are missing or you have criminal charges related to your honesty and trustworthiness or even your ability to provide prudent care, the Board can summarily suspend your license for up to 90 days.

Although the State must prove that you are a clear and immediate threat to the public, I recently had an experience where the Board considered the charges alone as ample evidence to suspend the nurse’s license.

With this bad news, you’re probably asking “Now, what do I do about it?”

Most nurses will never find themselves in this situation. Just be proactive and protect your nursing license as you would your driver’s license. Practice nursing safely and avoid situations where there could be any concerns about you ability to practice.

Also, hospitals now have tracking systems in their Pyxis or Omnicell to see if your narcotic administration is the same or similar to your co-workers. If your narcotic administration is higher, the Board may call you in. Your job may have concerns as well as the Board.

If you are a nurse who is really concerned about your patient’s pain and want to stay on top of it, make sure that your colleagues have the same philosophy. Some nurses believe that pain meds should be delivered only when a person asks and other nurses try to help their patients to really stay on top of the pain. Again, just make sure that the philosophy on your unit is the same so that you don’t stand out.

Always remember that your license is a privilege and not a right. Always protect it as you would any other privilege.

Brittney Wilson, RN, BSN

Technology and social media have added many new benefits as well as many new challenges to the nursing profession. On the one hand we now can access patient data and chart on patient care more quickly and easily than ever and we have access to a nearly limitless online support system of nurses. However, on the other hand we now could accidently share protected health information (PHI) over social media in just a few clicks of a mouse. Because of this, nurses need to be very aware that with great power come great responsibility and social media and technology should be used fully, wisely, and cautiously.

But don’t start shaking in Dansko’s just yet. There’s no need to fear technology or social media. You just have to be smart about it. Every action you make should be analyzed to consider if it’s in the best interest of the patients you serve and whether it could violate any laws or your state nurse practice acts.

The following are a few tips to help you avoid making mistakes with social media and technology and in the process protect your nursing license.

Make Sure Your Mobile Device Is Encrypted

There are many laws in place to protect patients and their private health data. This means that mobile devices, like laptops, that you use for work and contain PHI must be encrypted. This way if they are lost or stolen the information cannot be accessed by the thieves and you and your organization won’t be facing costly fines and burdensome media attention.

Don’t Share HIPAA Protected Data

I know nurses get tired of hearing about HIPAA but it’s really important to always keep it at the forefront of your mind. Violating HIPAA can be as simple as revealing the date of service and location of patient care. There are 18 patient identifiers that are off limits. Something innocent seeming like a patient’s age can even be an identifier (if they are over 90). If you aren’t careful you can share information that can bring you costly penalties and may even bring you up for review by the nursing board.

Don’t Disparage Your Profession Or Your Boss Via Social Media

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Nursing needs to be critiqued. There are plenty of issues that need to be highlighted so we can find solutions to the problems. But constantly being negative and disparaging your entire profession, your state nursing board, or your boss are not the best approaches to enacting positive change. On the one hand it could get your fired and if you take it to the extreme and boss-bash, nursing-board-bash, or patent-bash the board of nursing could question your mental health or even worse.

Using These New Tools

Technology and social media should be seen as a tool to better provide nursing care, not as a hindrance. There are many wonderful things that technology can do for nurses and patients but nurses have to make sure they are doing their due diligence when it comes to using these new tools.
Brittney Wilson, RN, BSN, also known as The Nerdy Nurse, is a Clinical Informatics Nurse practicing in the Atlanta, Georgia area. In her day job she gets to do what she loves every Brittney Wilsonday: Combine technology and healthcare to improve patient outcomes. She can best be described as a patient, nurse and technology advocate, and has a passion for using technology to innovate, improve and simplify lives, especially in healthcare.Brittney is the author of The Nerdy Nurse’s Guide to Technology. She is a social media influencer and blogs about nursing, technology, healthcare, parenting and various lifestyle topics at thenerdynurse.com.