Category: License Protection

“You haven’t taken report yet, so you can leave.” “The doctor ordered it, so you’re covered.” “If you documented it, you’re protected.” Have you ever heard one of these statements at the nurses’ station? Nursing has its own version of urban legends. They get passed from nurse to nurse, shift to shift, and sometimes generation to generation. Eventually, we hear […]

There is something wonderful about a lazy river. You get in, grab a tube, lean back, and let the current carry you. You do not have to decide where you are going. You do not have to work very hard. You just float. And before you know it, you are right back where you started. I think that is what […]

The Lindsay Clancy tragedy is one of those stories that is almost impossible to comprehend. Three beautiful children, Cora, Dawson and Callan, lost their lives. Their mother, a labor and delivery nurse, had been struggling with serious mental health symptoms and had repeatedly sought help before that terrible day. Nothing can diminish the magnitude of what happened or the heartbreaking […]

  One of the most important lessons nurses can take from the Lindsay Clancy case is the extraordinary importance of documentation. As nurses, we sometimes think of documentation as the part of the job that comes after the “real” nursing is finished. But documentation is part of patient care. The medical record may eventually become the only way someone who was not […]

  The American Nurses Association (ANA) recently made a historic decision to open its national membership to licensed practical nurses (LPNs) and licensed vocational nurses (LVNs). For the first time in its 130-year history, LPNs will be eligible to join the nation’s largest nursing organization. According to the ANA, the goal is to create a more unified nursing profession and […]

  Many nurses believe that what they post on their personal social media accounts is protected by free speech. While the First Amendment protects people from government censorship in many circumstances, it does not protect most nurses from the employment consequences of what they choose to post online. If you are employed by a private hospital, healthcare system, or clinic, […]

  For the past several months, nurses across the country have been asking the same question: “How can nursing not be considered a profession?” That question sparked outrage after the U.S. Department of Education issued a rule that would have excluded graduate nursing degrees from the definition of a “professional degree” for federal student loan purposes. The consequences were significant. […]

Many nurse practitioners assume that billing is someone else’s responsibility. After all, they hired a billing company, outsourced revenue cycle management, or delegated claims submission to a trusted employee. Unfortunately, federal regulators do not see it that way. This week, the Department of Justice announced what it called the largest healthcare fraud takedown in history, charging 455 defendants, including doctors, […]

Most nurses did not enter the profession because they wanted to fight about staffing ratios, budgets, or hospital policies. They became nurses because they wanted to care for patients. Yet every day, nurses across the country find themselves in an impossible position. They are asked to care for more patients than is safe, work with inadequate support, skip breaks, stay […]

Many nurses are surprised to learn that disciplinary action taken by a Board of Nursing can follow them far beyond their home state. What starts as a licensing issue can eventually find its way into the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), creating long-term consequences for employment, credentialing, and professional opportunities. The reality is that many nurses do not discover they […]