A nurse may be worried about losing their license if they are caring for a patient and there is a negative outcome. For instance, perhaps a nurse is supposed to be monitoring a patient’s symptoms and providing them with medication after a surgery. But the patient suddenly goes into cardiac arrest and passes away.
The family blames the nurse, saying the nurse was supposed to help them and failed to do so. Would the nurse’s license be at risk? Is this negative event enough to cause them to face a license suspension or revocation?
Why did the negative outcome occur?
The negative outcome on its own is likely not enough for the nurse to lose their license. Instead, it has to be shown that some element of negligence or intentional action meant the nurse didn’t provide the proper level of care. Common reasons that nurses lose their license include:
- Patient negligence, where the nurse fails to provide the expected level of care
- Substance abuse on the job
- Documentation errors, such as incomplete patient charts
- Engaging in unethical conduct, like falsifying records
- Experiencing legal events outside of work, such as a felony conviction
In the hypothetical example above, the patient may have simply had a cardiac arrest because it was a potential side effect of their surgery—and it was a risk they knew about in advance. But if it was shown that the nurse was negligent and wasn’t monitoring the patient’s symptoms, perhaps because they were under the influence, then it would be a much different situation. In a case like that, a nurse could be at risk of losing their license.
Because a medical license is required to work in the industry, anything that threatens it must be taken very seriously. Nurses need to know exactly what legal defense options they have.
