Whenever someone filed a complaint against you, regarding physical abuse, your license could be put in danger if not defended by a nurse attorney. An RN from Houston, Texas is just one of the many examples.
At the time of the initial incident, an RN was employed as a Registered Nurse at a hospital facility in Pearland, Texas, and assigned to the Gynecology unit, and had been in that position for one (1) year.
On or about March 12, 2019, through June 3, 2019, while employed as a Registered Nurse, the RN inappropriately accessed multiple patients’ medical records three hundred eighty-seven (387) times while off duty. Furthermore, some of these patients were not assigned to her and/or were patients from other units in the hospital where she was not assigned. The RN’s conduct exposed the patients unnecessarily to a risk of harm from the use, accessing, or disclosure of their confidential medical information without their written authorization and placed the facility in violation of HIPAA (The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).
On or about May l, 2019 through May 15, 2019, while employed as a Registered Nurse, the RN misappropriated Benadryl IV and Dilaudid from PCA pumps belonging to the facility and patients for personal use. Subsequently, the RN admitted to taking the Benadryl IV and Dilaudid. The RN’s conduct was likely to defraud the facility and patients thereof of the cost of the medications.
On or about May 19, 2019, through June l, 2019, while employed as a Registered Nurse, the RN lacked the fitness to practice professional nursing, in that she exhibited narcotic seeking behaviors including, but not limited to: attempting to use her suspended badge to gain access to different floors in the hospital, removing the PCA key several times, showing up at the facility in scrubs after being terminated from the facility, entering a patient’s room where she started manipulating the PCA pump and wandering the halls looking inpatient rooms. Additionally, the RN was found in possession of a PCA key by security personnel. The RN’s behavior could have affected her ability to recognize subtle signs, symptoms, or changes in conditions, and could have affected her ability to make rational, accurate, and appropriate assessments, judgments, and decisions regarding patient care, thereby placing patients in potential danger.
In response to the incidents, the RN states she accessed multiple patient records, looking for patients receiving PCA Dilaudid and checking when it will be their discharge and sometimes she checked other floors, just to see if she can pick up extra shifts to work. The RN states in the Gynecology floor, where she started working on 02/2018, doctors always put surgical patients on PCA (either Morphine or Dilaudid), and most of the time they wasted that PCA’s the next day. The RN states one day when she had extreme back pain, she took 0.5mg of wasted PCA Dilaudid using an insulin syringe. The RN states a couple of hours later she started itching so bad from Dilaudid, that she took Benadryl IV to relieve the itching. The RN states she used wasted Dilaudid a couple more times and stopped. The RN states she used Benadryl several more times. The RN states five days later while she was doing her normal activities at home, she had another bad back injury. The RN stated she thought the easiest way to relieve the pain, was to go back to the hospital. The RN states she went back to the hospital, retrieved the PCA key, and accessed medication rooms in the hospital, looking for wasted PCA Dilaudid. And also the RN states one day when she couldn’t find any wasted PCA, she tried to access a patient’s room to get to the PCA, but she couldn’t do that because the patient called her nurse through the call light.
However, with the failure to hire an experienced nurse attorney to help her defend her side, the RN never had the chance to defend her side of the story.
Because of this incident, the Texas Board of Nursing then subjected the RN and her license to disciplinary action.
The accusation would have been defended by an experienced and skilled nurse attorney, had the RN hired one. Hiring a nurse attorney for defense is applicable for any kind of accusation laid against an RN or LVN.
For more details and to schedule a confidential consultation, you must approach one of the most experienced nurse attorneys in Texas, Nurse Attorney Yong J. An. He has assisted numerous nursing license cases since 2006. You may contact him by dialing (832)-428-567 if you wish to learn more information should you undergo accusations or any other case that may affect your license.