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Malpractices have been a signature specialty of a nurse attorney when handling cases for some nurses. However, some nurses tend to forget this fact because they really felt like they should be responsible even if they never intended to commit such an error.

One such incident occurred on or about February 7, 2014 to a RN in El Paso, Texas. During the said period of time, the RN documented that a certain patient refused her scheduled medications, including Aspirin and Lovenox, a blood thinning medication, but failed to notify the patient’s physician that the medication was refused for two days. The patient was discharged and subsequently became confused, exhibited slurred speech, and had shortness of breath, and had to be transported to the emergency room, where she required emergency resuscitation and then expired. Respondent’s conduct was likely to injure the patient by depriving the physician of vital information that would be required to institute timely medical interventions.

This issue was filed as a complaint and sent to the Texas Board of Nursing. The Texas Board of Nursing has full jurisdiction in all cases that may affect the status of an RN or LVN’s license in the future. But they advise nurses to attend a hearing first before placing the sentence, which the RN attended for her career’s security.

The RN states that the patient refused these medications and many others throughout her stay, and the physician was already aware of this, so it was not a change in condition. She states that her nursing notes regarding the refusal served to communicate to the entire care team, including the physicians, that the patient was refusing medications. The RN adds that the patient was stable when she was discharged from the facility.

As a result, the Texas Board of Nursing placed her RN license to 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 actually 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. To contact him, please dial (832)-428-5679 for a confidential consultation or for more inquiries.