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Posted On: July 24, 2009 by Christopher T. Hurley

When Caregivers Harm: Problem Nurses Stay on the Job as Patients Suffer

As a medical malpractice lawyer, I find the following story extremely disturbing. In my opinion, the California Nursing Board is clearly not doing its job protecting hospital patients from bad nurses. Especially since people generally have no choice in their nurse and no way of knowing the nurse’s past disciplinary history, the Nursing Board plays a critical role in protecting these people.

ProRepublica and the Los Angeles Times report (Ornstein, Weber, Moore, 7/11) about a California nurse who was not formally sanctioned for over two years after repeated incidents of physical violence towards patients. Finally, he was forced into anger management classes. After completing the court ordered anger class, and still “awaiting his first board hearing,” the nurse was able to practice with an unrestricted license. The Los Angeles Times and ProRepublica found “more than 60 nurses since 2002 who…were accused of committing serious misconduct or mistakes in at least three health facilities before the board took action.”

Other findings demonstrated that it took the Nursing Board, on average, more than three years to investigate and discipline delinquent nurses, leaving countless dangerous nurses fully licensed in the interim. Although Board leaders assert that timely disciplinary action has always been a problem and blame it partially on issues with other parts of the state bureaucracy, they give only vague recommendations for future improvement.

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