When the Texas Board of Nursing summoned you to appear before the court, hiring the best nurse attorney is crucial. Unfortunately, not all nurses were able to hire a nurse attorney as they underwent such cases. This incident that an RN from Irving committed in July 2019 was one of those examples.
At the time of the incident, the RN was employed as a Registered Nurse in a medical facility in Irving and had been in that position for two years and eight months.
On or about July 1, 2019, the RN falsely documented the administration of one Hydrocodone 10/325mg tablet in the Medication Administration Record (MAR) for a patient in that, she advised the staff the patient had only received one Motrin, since the previous afternoon; however, the patient’s MAR indicated the RN had administered one Hydrocodone 10/325mg tablet to the patient at 1004 and the patient confirmed she had only received the Motrin and not the Hydrocodone.
Additionally, staff subsequently noticed the RN edited the patient’s MAR to indicate she administered the Hydrocodone to the patient at 1110. Staff asked the patient if she had received any pain medication since their last visit, approximately one (1) hour prior, and the patient advised that she had returned and gave her something for pain as precautionary even though her pain level was only two. Her conduct created an inaccurate medical record and failure to administer medication as ordered by the physician could have resulted in non-efficacious treatment.
In response to the incident, the RN states the patient indicated her pain level was two or three, but later stated her pain had increased to about six after she got out of bed and started walking around. She relates that she went and pulled the patient’s scheduled morning medications and also pulled her pain medication due to the patient telling the RN about her increased pain.
However, the RN states that the patient told the RN she did not want the pain medication just yet, so the RN held on to it. She states she went back to the patient’s room later to see if the patient wanted her pain medication and the patient said yes because she was about to get up and walk again. The RN relates the patient took the medication and then she updated the MAR to reflect the real-time the medication was taken.
The Texas Board of Nursing has full jurisdiction over all cases regarding errors committed by an RN or LVN. Thus, she was called by the Board to defend against the case.
The following incident and defense against the case caused the Texas Board of Nursing to place the RN and her license into disciplinary proceedings. She would have sought assistance from a good nurse attorney to provide clarifications towards the case.
Always remember that anyone can file a complaint against an RN with the state board for any reason. When this happens, all complaints need to be taken seriously no matter how trivial or unfounded they may appear. A nurse attorney is someone who can help you defend your license when the state board summonses you. Nurse defense attorney Yong J. An, an experienced nurse lawyer for various licensing cases for 14 years, can assist you by contacting him at (832) 428-5679.