Complaints about patient abuse may put your license at risk if not properly defended by a nurse attorney. Issues such as this may greatly affect your future career, but only if you failed to hire a nurse attorney for the case. There are some RNs and LVNs who missed their chances to get their license saved from disciplinary action or revocation just because they couldn’t hire a nurse attorney to defend them. This RN from College Station, Texas happens to be one of them.
At the time of the initial incident, she was employed as an RN with a pediatric home healthcare services provider in College Station, Texas, and had been in that position for five (5) years and nine (9) months.
On or about July l, 2020, while employed as an RN with a pediatric home healthcare services provider in College Station, Texas, RN hit a pediatric patient, on the leg and arm several times. In addition, RN admitted to hitting the patient. RN’s conduct was likely to cause emotional, physical, and/or psychological harm to the patient and could have interfered or disrupted this patient’s treatment.
In response to the above incident, RN admits to tapping the patient’s hands 4 times to redirect the patient but states she does not remember touching the patient anywhere else. RN states the patient was a 5-year-old child with autism who has little interaction with the outside world and does not know how to behave or take instruction and tends not to listen when spoken to. RN states in the fall, the patient began homeschooling with a teacher who had an iPad. RN states the patient would turn the iPad off or make it repeat a lesson that she liked.
The above action constitutes grounds for disciplinary action in accordance with Section 301.452(b)(10)&(13), Texas Occupations Code, and is a violation of 22 TEX. ADMIN. CODE §217.11(1)(A)&(1)(B) and 22 TEX. ADMIN. CODE §217.12(1)(A),(1)(B),(4),(6)(C)&(6)(F).
As a result, the Texas Board of Nursing decided to place her RN license under disciplinary action. It’s too bad that she failed to hire a nurse attorney for assistance, knowing that she had every reason to defend herself in the first place. Her defense would have gotten better if she sought legal consultation from a Texas nurse attorney as well.
So, if you’re facing a complaint from the Board, it’s best to seek legal advice first. Texas Nurse Attorney Yong J. An is willing to assist every nurse in need of immediate help for nurse licensing cases. He is an experienced nurse attorney for various licensing cases for the past 16 years and represented over 300 nurses before the Texas BON. To contact him, please dial (832)-428-5679 for a confidential consultation or for more inquiries.