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 to do so much more with less.  Administration is squeezing nurses to put their patients’ lives at risk and their licenses on the line. I am all for mandatory nurse patient ratios.  While I think it … [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 protect your license and your livelihood as well as protecting you if a medical malpractice claim should arise. One thing nurses seldom realize is that when they late chart or enter something in a record which is not timed, an … [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, licensed practical nurses in Indiana had to renew their licenses while registered nurses were required do so by the same date on the odd numbered years. In our office, we learn every year that somebody … [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 law which governs bodies such as nursing boards. Statutes that govern administrative law are referred to as the Administrative Procedures Act (“APA”). Or in Indiana, the Indiana Orders and … [Read more...]