Did you know you could be placed on the Medicare/Medicaid exclusion list—and if you are, you can’t work with any patients covered by those programs or entities that accept Medicare or Medicaid payments? If that happens, it drastically limits where you can work. Today, nearly every healthcare facility accepts Medicare or Medicaid,... Read more

Imagine having your military serving spouse transferred in the middle of a pandemic and you are an Advanced Practice Nurse then having to wait 30 weeks before you can be licensed in your new state? Well, that is exactly what happened to Courtney Gramm of California, board-certified and a member... Read more

52-year-old Connie Sneed is charged with a Level 5 felony for practicing medicine without a license in Indiana. Ms. Sneed, who had been with the nursing home for 15-years, posted a comment on a Facebook page which caused her to be charged criminally.  Her comment was, “I just want y’all... Read more

California Governor Gavin Newsom proposes that nurses be trained in ICU care in just 48 hours.  Maybe they can be trained in 2 days but certainly not sufficiently enough to do things safely or within the standard of care. A nurse with only 48 hours of ICU training may end... Read more

A Minnesota emergency room nurse was concerned about having to wear his own scrubs to work during COVID and returning home to his wife and children wearing those potentially contaminated scrubs.  He worried about bringing the virus home and passing it on to his family. Scrubs were available in the... Read more

An Oregon oncology nurse posted a video on Tik Tok saying that she does not wear masks in public, continues to travel and allows her children to have playdates. Someone who viewed the video reported her to her employer.  She was placed on administrative leave. In the video, this nurse... Read more

Every nurse I have ever represented said, “I am a good nurse.  I never thought I would have to appear before the Board.”  But here they are caught in the administrative quagmire.  There are a myriad of ways a nurse can get in trouble with the Board. I wanted to... Read more

A couple of weeks ago, I shared about a scam taking place against nurses in Idaho and which now has spread to Missouri.  What is happening is that nurses are alerted by a phone call and letter purportedly from the state Board of Nursing telling the nurse that they are... Read more

Every couple of years, the Nursing Service Organization (“NSO”) publishes a claim report and their most recent one is the 4th edition and some interesting things surfaced.  Since NSO provides insurance for nursing representation for medical malpractice and for the Board matters, the claims report is split into 2 sections:... Read more

Each year 7,000 nurses have some type of discipline put on their license. When a Board disciplines a nurse, it can usually do 1 of 4 things. Give the nurse a reprimand which is like a slap on the wrist. Place the nurse’s license on probation. Suspend the license. Revoke... Read more

In Midland, Texas, 6 nurses who contracted with Midland County Detention Center were criminally indicted recently for manslaughter, criminal negligent homicide and tampering with a governmental record allegedly failing to keep proper records and possible false charting.  There is not much information in the media to glean except that it... Read more

On July 1, 2020, Indiana became the next state to join the Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC) which allows nurses who live in Indiana to practice outside of Indiana under the auspices of a Compact License. To apply for the License, you need to go to in.gov/pla, click pla online services,... Read more

Nurses always want to be helpful and will share with anyone.  However, there are some instances where silence is golden!             1.         WORK STATEMENT.  If your supervisor calls you in wanting you to write a statement, be very careful.  Don’t be pressured into writing a statement.  Or, if you want... Read more

I receive so many calls from travel nurses who either don’t read their contract or don’t negotiate their contract and wind up having issues.  So, I thought I would warn you about some of the perils of travel nursing. Keep all Boards apprised of your current address, even if your... Read more

On December 26, 2017, Charlene Murphey was a patient at Vanderbilt Medical Center where she was being treated for a subdural hematoma.  A PET scan was ordered and she was transported to that department where she stated she suffered from claustrophobia and was afraid to have the PET scan.  Versed... Read more

With the opioid epidemic raging right now, hospitals are even more cautious of anything that could be considered abuse.  You need to protect yourself and your license so I have some tips to not only keep from endangering your license, but maybe help you avoid criminal charges as well. 1.        ... Read more

Nurses are consistently ranked as the most trusted professional group according to a Gallup Poll.  Nurses again outpaced other professions for honesty and ethics.  They rate an average of 84%, a very high range.  The second highest were pharmacists followed by medical doctors. However, I deal with nurses everyday who... Read more

Many nurses come to me after being terminated from their position and tell me, “I knew I should have left, but I just didn’t.”  Nurses get into their comfort zones.  They become so loyal to their colleagues and patients that they don’t want to leave.  However, I always say, “You... Read more

Lorie Brown discusses the 5 Fatal Mistakes that Nurses make when they appear before the Nursing Board or talk to investigators without legal representation. The Fatal Mistakes include oversharing, not knowing how to object, what evidence you need to present, not knowing or understanding the ramifications of any settlement you... Read more

NSO joins up with CNA Insurance Company to publish Claims Analysis for Nurses and Nurse Practitioners.  Here, I want to talk about the analysis for Nurse Practitioners. It was determined that 29.4% of the closed claims, meaning medical malpractice cases against Nurse Practitioners, were medication related.  The average claim against... Read more

Lorie Brown, Nurse Attorney and Founder of Brown Law Office, P.C. and EmpoweredNurses.org, and Ryan Fox, Indiana Employment Law Attorney with Fox Williams & Sink, discuss employment matters that Nurses might encounter such as discrimination, unlawful termination or retaliation, FLMA, not being compensated when working through your breaks or working... Read more

Lorie Brown, Nurse Attorney, and Marc Lopez, Indiana Criminal Attorney, discuss what happens when a Nurse has been arrested, disciplined and/or investigated by an employer. They also discuss the best steps to take to avoid or lessen criminal charges as well as appearing before the Board of Nursing. Some of... Read more

As you know, marijuana is legal in 9 states for recreational purposes and in 30 for medical purposes.  However, even if it is legal where you live or visit, it may not be legal for you to use as a nurse. Unfortunately, it stays in your system for a long... Read more

There probably is no one in the country who has not heard the phrase “Anything you say can and will be used against you.”  I’ve been familiar with that saying seemingly forever.  I always thought that referred only to criminal matters but apparently it now applies to nursing as well.... Read more

Recently, an article in The Atlanta Journal Constitution detailed how the Georgia Board of Nursing secretly handles more than half of its disciplinary cases.  What I gather from the article is that nurses who are put into a monitoring program, as long as they are compliant, will have not have... Read more

On April 12th of this year, Christann Shyvin Gainey, L.P.N., was caring for a patient named H.R. McMaster, Sr. who was recovering from a stroke in a Pennsylvania facility.  During her shift and unwitnessed, Mr. McMaster fell and nurse Gainey was seen on surveillance video failing to perform neuro checks... Read more

As nurses, we are the front line of patient safety. These days, hospitals are run as corporations and tend to put profits ahead of patients.  We need to change this.  People come first! Because hospitals are now run like businesses, productivity experts and personnel who are not nurses, ask us... Read more

No one ever has become a nurse so that they can sit to document all the care they provided to their patients.  Yet, documentation is one of the most important parts of our practice.  As much as any of you may dislike documentation, it serves a very important purpose to... Read more

I don’t know what it’s like in other states, but when Indiana went to electronic license renewal, they no longer sent reminders of license renewal to health care professionals. Some would get an e-mail and sometimes it would go to spam. Who knows? Every even numbered year, by October 31st,... Read more

There are different types of law.  Civil law, which guides us in the civil area of our lives.  Criminal law, which have consequences for your freedom.  There is military law which, obviously, affects those in the armed services of our country.  Lastly, there is administrative law, a subset of civil... Read more

Theresa Puckett, a practicing nurse who also is a professor with a PhD in nursing, had been working PRN at a hospital for 5 years.  When she found herself experiencing chills, achiness and “feeling miserable” for 2 days, she went to an urgent care where she was given a prescription... Read more

I recently read an article by Michelle Podlesni of the National Nurses in Business Association titled “Why Nurses Need a Plan B and More in Today’s Marketplace.”  She talked about 3 big mergers that have occurred. CVS is buying Aetna Insurance.  There are rumors of Walmart buying Humana.  CHI and... Read more

In my last article, I discussed the shortage of nurses, but this time, I’m going to talk about the shortage of physicians and nurse practitioners. It is estimated that in California, by the year 2025, that State will be short about 4,700 primary care physicians.  If a physician is not... Read more

In September 2017, the Governor of Illinois signed into law a bill that goes into effect January 21st, 2018, which allows nurse practitioners to have full practice authority in that State.  The law finally passed because of cooperation from the Medical Association and it’s been a long time coming.  Now,... Read more

Every 2 years in Indiana, R.N.’s renew their licenses.  Even though the license renewal is due on October 31st of the odd-numbered years, nurses can to begin to renew as early as July of that year.  However, many nurses seem to wait until the last minute to undertake the task.... Read more

In 2015, a law was passed in Indiana requiring health care providers to disclose criminal convictions within 90 days. Indiana Code 25-1-1.1-1 provides that “… (b) An individual licensed or certified under this title shall, not later than ninety (90) days after the entry of an order or judgment, notify... Read more

Lorie Brown, RN, MN, JD of www.YourNurseAttorney.com and www.EmpoweredNurses.org interviews Carmen Kosicek, MSN, APNP, MPHNP-BC of Alay Health Team, regarding problems Nurse Practitioners and Advance Practice Nurses are encountering both as medical providers and business owners, including collaborative practice agreements, medical malpractice, protecting your license and your assets as well... Read more

A question I receive often is whether a certain task falls within the scope of practice. Unfortunately, there is no blanket answer. Scope of practice varies state-by-state and institution to institution. Just because you are educated and even trained to perform a certain skill, that does not mean using that... Read more

One of the questions I am most frequently asked by nurses is whether the Board of Nursing can take away their nursing license. Unfortunately, the answer to that question is “Yes.”  The license can be taken away temporarily or permanently. The temporary process is called “emergency suspension”.  Unlike in a... Read more

I am often asked (1) if a Nursing Board matter is a permanent public record and if so, (2) is there any way to get that record expunged? Unfortunately, there are only a few states that allow expungement of Nursing Board records and only under very limited circumstances.  Kentucky is... Read more

Lorie Brown, RN, MN, JD interviews Marc Lopez, Esq., a criminal law attorney (www.MarcLopezLaw.com) on nurses and healthcare providers that are arrested for Driving Under the Influence (DUI / OWI), Refusing a Breathalyzer Test, Substance Abuse / Diversion and the Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG) Medicare / Medicaid Exclusion... Read more

Usually buried somewhere on the second page of a Hearing Notice (at least in Indiana and I presume in other states) is a notation that a nurse has the right to have an attorney represent them before the Nursing Board. However, for whatever reason, some nurses either fail to notice... Read more

For the past 25 years, I have represented clients before both Medical Licensing Boards as well as Nursing Boards.  What I have noticed during that time is that there are significant differences between the Boards. The first difference is the volume of matters.  The Nursing Board handles a much larger... Read more

Many a nurse found in violation of nursing regulations have come to me saying, “I didn’t know I couldn’t do that!” Other times I hear, “Well, that’s the way we did it in our unit” or “That’s how I was trained!” But none of those are proper defenses to charges... Read more

Okay, it’s not that drastic. But it’s important to always keep in mind the standards you are held to as a nurse, even on social media. As much as we’d like to keep our work lives and our private lives separate, the digital age has made distancing these two worlds... Read more

I am known for saying, “You can always get another job but not another license!” If you smell the handwriting on the wall, resign.  If you get terminated, on every future job application you will have to disclose that you were terminated.  Otherwise, not to do so is called fraud... Read more

Lorie Brown, RN, MN, JD of YourNurseAttorney.com discusses NSO Insurance for Nurses and what the benefits are of having your own insurance.Does NSO insurance help if you have to appear before the Board of Nursing? Read more

Lorie Brown, RN, MN, JD of Brown Law Office, P.C. discusses what can happen if you have an action or discipline against your nursing license if you have licenses in different states – even if your license is expired. This is called the “Domino Effect”. Read more

Most States are “employment at will” which means that one can be terminated for any reason or even for no reason at all!  However, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, employers are prohibited from discriminating against applicants and employees on the basis of race, color, religion, sex and... Read more

Congratulations to South Dakota for becoming the most recent State to pass a law to grant full and direct access to Nurse Practitioners!  This is the 22nd State to authorize NPs to provide the full scope of services to the public.  Certainly, this will enhance patients’ ability to access high... Read more

Sometime nurses resign yet their employment records will show that they were terminated.  Therefore, the question becomes, how can you properly resign? In order to properly resign, you must submit your resignation in writing and it has to be accepted.  Keep documentation of your resignation and, for added measure, have... Read more

In nursing, there is a fine line between high tech and high touch.  Sometimes I wonder, with so much technology, will they even need nurses in the future? Someday there may be a “tricorder” like Bones used in the Star Trek series to diagnose and heal people.  But … back... Read more

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If a nurse ever faces a criminal matter, they could wind up on the Medicare and Medicaid Exclusion list which prohibits a nurse from working in any facility where they take Medicare or Medicaid payments which is virtually every place. The goal of many attorneys is to keep a nurse... Read more

Finally, the Department of Veteran Affairs has granted veterans direct access to advanced practice registered nurses.  It used to be that nurse practitioners were under the direction of a physician.  However, now in the entire VA system, nurse practitioners can practice independently.  This will give veterans increased access to care... Read more

Negligence is a civil wrong of which medical malpractice itself is a form.  There are 4 elements to negligence: duty, breach, cause and harm.  In order to have a claim for negligence, all 4 of these elements must be present. Let’s first look at negligence in a context outside of... Read more

Would you believe that if you have a license, which is expired, the Board can still take action on that license?   Unfortunately, many nurses find out the hard way that this is the case.  The idea is that, like a driver’s license, if your license gets suspended in one state,... Read more

The Visiting Nurse Service of New York, a nonprofit home health care agency, has recently been named in a lawsuit under the Federal and State False Claims Act alleging that the agency improperly and falsely billed Medicare and Medicaid. It is hard to believe that such a long standing agency... Read more

Did you know that most automatic medication dispensing systems track discrepancies?  All discrepancies should be resolved by the end of the shift. They also report when controlled substances are taken and can compare the medications vended versus the medications charted.  Then, someone needs to check whether the waste was properly... Read more

A frequent comment I hear from my clients is that they are given an extremely difficult assignment or that they are very short-staffed. One nurse was in a long-term care facility that was so short-staffed; she was assigned her own hall as well as half of another hall.  These nursing... Read more

In such a demanding career as nursing, I’m sure you’ve wondered how the difficulties you face compare to others in the industry. John S. Kiernan’s recent article 2016’s Best and Worst States for Nurses on Wallethub.com just might have the answer. The study ranked all 50 states and the District... Read more

Kathy Lynch and Karen Dunning, nurse practitioners and owners of Kouts Health Care Clinic, were accused of illegally issuing weight loss drugs to their patients and 27 counts of felony charges were filed against them.  Because of the multiple felony charges regarding prescribing practices, the Indiana State Board of Nursing... Read more

With hospitals being run by corporations, their critical focus is on the bottom line.  We see that more and more nurses, after remaining loyal and dedicated workers at the same institution for years, are finding themselves being terminated once they reach the top of the pay scale. There are two... Read more

The Nurses Service Organization (NSO) has released its 2015 claims report.  NSO collects data every year including claims against nurses, their areas of practice and how the claim is resolved. Of 549 claims against nurses last year that were closed, 88.5% involved RN’s while 11.5% involved LPN’s.  This is interesting... Read more

News stories have been popping up recently about individuals stealing the identity of a nurse to pose as that person to get a job.  For example, Bobbi Kristina Brown, the daughter of late famed singer Whitney Houston, was in a hospice where she was being cared for by an impostor... Read more

Have you ever felt that when something so unexpectedly happens, it’s like you’ve been kicked in the gut?  This is how a lot of my nurses and other health care providers feel when they are terminated from their position or get a complaint before the Licensing Board.  They are good... Read more

Do you know your hospital’s policies and procedures?  Do you follow them? If you have worked at numerous places, you probably have noticed that each hospital has its own specific policies and procedures.  It may never occur to you to look up the policy or procedure on something because, as... Read more

Have you ever headed somewhere and took a shortcut only to wind up taking more time than had you taken the original route? Well, the same is true in nursing. Some nurses take shortcuts to expedite their work load. Shortcuts can include pre-documenting, medication administration, setting up medications early or... Read more

Is a med error considered malpractice? “Malpractice” is a fancy word for negligence, but involves a professional. There are 4 elements of malpractice: Duty (the standard of care) Breach (you didn’t do what you were supposed to do or did something that you should not have done); Causation; and Harm.... Read more

In the time when I was growing up, the goal of my parents’ generation was to get a job and stay there for life. It would be a job for which you could contribute to a retirement so that someday you would be able to retire. So, when I got... Read more