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. Whenever someone filed a complaint against you, your license could be put in danger if not defended by a nurse attorney. An RN from Richardson, Texas is just one of the many examples.
At the time of the initial incident, she was employed as an RN at a home healthcare services provider in Richardson, Texas, and had been in that position for five (5) months.
On or about May 22, 2020, through June 5, 2020, while employed as an RN at a home healthcare services provider in Richardson, Texas, and assigned to provide nursing care for a patient, RN did the following:
1. RN was observed sleeping and snoring on at least six (6) different occasions during her shift. RN’s conduct could have affected her ability to recognize subtle signs, symptoms, or changes in patient’s conditions, and could have affected her ability to make rational, accurate, and appropriate assessments, judgments, and decisions regarding patient care, thereby placing the patients in potential danger.
2. RN silenced and/or turned off the patient’s pulse oximetry monitor. RN’s conduct exposed the patient to a risk of harm in that the lack of information from the monitoring equipment could have deprived the patient of timely medical intervention.
In response, the RN states she might have dozed off, but she could not recollect. She also states most times the family would tell her she didn’t need to turn the pulse ox machine on since the baby was doing so well during the day. RN states she walked into her shift and the patient was completely off oxygen and not on the monitor. RN explains during the 10 pm feeding, the patient’s saturation got as low as the ’70s and she got up to suction, turned the patient, elevated his legs, changed the site of the probe, tried stimulating the patient by rubbing his chest and face so he could take a deep breath, and lastly converted oxygen from Pedi to standard at 21 pm. Despite all these measures, RN states the saturation only increased to 85% and the monitor alarm was still going off, but the patient seemed in a deep comfortable sleep, skin looked pink, and no difficulty in breathing was noticed. According to RN, she turned off the monitor for about 10-15 minutes as she wasn’t sure if the monitor had malfunctioned. About 2 minutes after turning it off, RN states the dad came out of his room and she let him know what was going on and why she turned it off for a few minutes. RN states that’s the only time she has completely turned it off and waited a minute before turning it back on.
The above actions constitute grounds for disciplinary action in accordance with Section 301.452(b)(10)&(13), Texas Occupations Code, and are a violation of 22 TEX. ADMIN. CODE §217.11(1)(A),(1)(B),(1)(C)&(1)(M) and 22 TEX. ADMIN. CODE §217.12(1)(B),(1)(E),(4)&(5).
However, the Texas Board of Nursing found the RN guilty, and her license to practice nursing in the State of Texas was subjected to disciplinary action.
Attorney Yong J. An is a nurse attorney that has a proven track record. He is an experienced nurse attorney for various licensing cases for 16 years and represented over 150 nurses before the Texas BON to protect their RN/LVN license. To contact him, please dial (832)-428-5679 for a confidential consultation or for more inquiries.
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