Nightmares

It has been a very busy time and so I have been a little delayed in getting posts done. I had a heck of nightmare the other night: I was arrested and I kept telling the Police that I had done nothing wrong but they continued the process making comments like "Yeah, right that is what they all say." When I told my husband, he said the cause of the nightmare was obvious because I am dealing with several cases where we keep telling the Board that they have the facts wrong and that the nurse is actually innocent or that the nurse did something so minor that it does not require action by the Board. Sometimes the Board listens and the case is dismissed and sometimes they don't and we continue in the process.

I get frustrated these days by what I see as the Board forgetting their mission, "to protect the public" because protecting the public means more than disciplining nurses. Too often I see punishment rather than regulation from the Board; regulation can occur without discipline. And, then what ends up happening is that good nurses either quit nursing out of frustration with the Board's reaction or they unable to obtain work because they are under a Board Order (the assumption is that the nurse must be bad if they are being regulated by the Board and thus, no job). How is the public protected if there are less nurses practicing?

Think that this does not impact you? It can. Once again, I spoke with a nurse who was shocked to be under investigation after years and years of nursing practice. She made an error but it was due to some specific mitigating factors that are unlikely to occur again. Unfortunately, her error will probably result in disciplinary action. If it can happen to a nurse like her, it can happen to you.

Happy Nurses Week

Happy Nurses Week.

I always liked the recognition when I was working and the food and little give-aways were nice, however, what I really liked was when a patient and/or family recognized the care being given to them. I don't mean gifts or cards or even verbal thank-yous, but that feeling you get when you know that someone else recognizes that you are not just there doing a job, earning money, but that you really care about what happens to them and that no matter what the outcome, you worked as hard as possible to make a difference. Sometimes the recognition was a look, a smile, a hug and maybe it was verbal.

So, here is a written thank you to all the nurses out there...THANK YOU FOR DECIDING TO BECOME A NURSE AND FOR STEPPING FORWARD TO CARE FOR ALL THAT DESPERATELY NEED YOU!!!!!

Another Nurse Bites the Dust

I just spoke with a nurse who is taking steps to stop nursing. This is a nurse who properly cared for a patient and documented his care throughly. His level of care was excellent and he constantly watched the patient and intervened appropriately. But, the patient was transferred to acute care three days later and the BON is looking at every nurse involved. We explained the level of care that this wonderful nurse provided and the BON is still stating that SOMEHOW he did not follow policy and procedure and that what he did three days prior contributed to the patient's transfer and ultimate demise.

Understandably, the nurse is frustrated and worried. He is looking at other occupations because he can't believe that his care of the patient is being scrutinized. So, once again, we will loose a qualified, skilled nurse due to the unfairness and unreasonableness.

So much for protecting the public.

Don't Miss This!!!!

At this week's Board meeting, the Board is presenting its proposed Disciplinary Sanctions for various violations. You must read this while understanding that these sanctions may be imposed on you in the future. Do not dismiss this because "I am a good nurse. I will never get in trouble with the Board." Many of my clients fell into this group; they are very good nurses that either made an error or found themselves subject to a violation because of actions outside of their control. I find some of these propositions troubling because the least intrusive of the sanctions are still heavy handed and do not allow for dismissal. Please review this immediately and be ready to comment when the proposed matrix is published.

How does this help the public?

I have been receiving several phone calls regarding Office of Inspector General letters informing nurses that they may be excluded from the Medicare/Medicaid program. I discuss this on my Information for Nurses blog, but I wanted to address the underlying issue of the over intrusive government (both state and federal). When the OIG first began the exclusion, it was for providers that defrauded the government and the exclusion would seem to be warranted, but the exclusions have exploded.

Now, when we are in the middle of a HUGE nursing shortage, nurses are facing exclusion for a large variety of reasons that have nothing to do with fraud. This is nothing more that yet one more governmental entity getting a bite of the nurse when an issue arises. How many entities does one nurse have to face over one issue?

It is an election year, encourage your state and federal legislators to stop this overreaching. They are harming the public, not helping. We do not need more governmental control, we need less. Administrative Lawyers, such as myself, know that an agency/regulatory entity is only as good as the people working there and even then, they could be hindered by policies or supervisors.