The Texas Board of Nursing has full jurisdiction over all cases that may affect the RN / LVN license. The strictness of the Board also ensures that nurses will only commit to the duties they are assigned to in order to guarantee accurate and excellent performance in all hospitals throughout the state of Texas. When you are summoned by the Texas BON on cases of failure to follow physician’s orders, you will need the expertise of an experienced nurse attorney to defend your case in court.
Here is the perfect example for the case of an RN in 2020. At the time of the incident, he was employed as an RN at a hospital in Edinburg, Texas and had been in that position for three (3) years and nine (9) months.
On or about September 19, 2020, through November 26, 2020, while employed as an RN at a hospital in Edinburg, Texas, RN failed to completely document physician notification of abnormal blood pressures and tachycardia readings for a patient in the medical record. Further, RN received a telephone order from the Nurse Practitioner on call for the Primary Care Physician but documented the order as Telephone Order/Read Back without personally speaking to the physician to clarify the order. Further, RN failed to ensure that a STAT computerized tomography (CT) scan of the head ordered at 0015 for the patient was performed in an appropriate time frame. The patient was not transferred for the CT until approximately ten (10) hours after receipt of the order.
In response, RN states that in the report, he was told that the patient was sedated by Versed. The patient appeared to be resting but moved when touched. Around 21:00, the Respiratory Therapist (RT) voiced concern about the patient’s change in level of consciousness. RN assessed the patient’s vital signs as stable and O2 sat was 100% on room air. RN informed another Registered Nurse (RN) about the patient’s level of consciousness. Next, about 2200, RN states he walked up to the nurse’s station where RN and RT were arguing because RT had not given a phone to a nurse to receive the Pulmonologist’s order for computed tomography (CT) scan. RN states he called for the Primary Doctor to get clarification of CT order and received the call back from Nurse Practitioner (NP) at 0200. The NP did not know the patient, so he instructed the RN to write the CT order under the Pulmonologist. RN informed another RN of NP’s instruction and was instructed by the RN to write and copy the order and have the Unit Clerk take care of transportation when he arrived. RN states the Unit Clerk ordered transportation, which was supposed to arrive at 0700, but it was further delayed because the initial hospital’s CT was not working. RN states he followed the policy of the facility by giving all the information to the RN and he followed the instructions he was given.
The above actions constitute grounds for disciplinary action in accordance with Section 301.463(b)(10)&(13), Texas Occupations Code, and is a violation of 22 TEX. ADMIN. CODE §217.11(1)(A),(1)(B),(1)(D),(1)(M)&(1)(P) and 22 TEX. ADMIN. CODE §217.12(1)(A),(1)(B),(1)(C)&(4).
As a result, the Texas Board of Nursing decided to place his RN license under disciplinary action. It’s too bad that he failed to hire a nurse attorney for assistance, knowing that he had every reason to defend himself in the first place. His defense would have gotten better if he 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.