The petition
Kerrville Texas, an R.N. arrived at work with "slow, garbled, speech" and had attempted an overdose with prescription medications. Was later diagnosed with a mood disorder.
A Texas R.N. was found to have stolen dozens of controlled substances from the hospitals medication dispenser, 3 pages of typewritten drugs listed, for her own use.
another R.N. was delivering a pain medication, Demerol, to her patient. She was distracted, laid down the shot in the room, covered it with some papers she had in her hand, completed the distracting task, then returned. No incident occurred.
North Texas R.N. tripped on a foley catheter and fell. One month later was drug tested positive for Darvocet that she been taken post surgery 1 week prior.
What do all these cases have in common? They all received identical punishments from the Texas Board of Nursing. A list of penalties including expensive classes to take, disallowing working without supervision, prohibiting multiple employers, expensive random drug testing that the nurse must bear the cost, public reprimands, reporting to a national databank, prohibition from floating to other units for their employer, disallowing consumption of alcohol, and, most disturbing of all, requiring the nurse to work as a bedside clinical nurse as a punishment.
Even if the nurse takes the Board to court and wins his/her case, the law allows them to override the judges decision and they do it every time, without exception.
More horrifying is that the Board simply ignores the laws which they write themselves, and comes up with their own punishments that have nothing to do with the law! It is tyranny!
The actions of the Texas Board of Nursing wreak havoc on lives both innocent and guilty. The public shaming and humility are uncalled for and the costs of meeting the punishments are far beyond the minimal income of a nurse.
If you believe the actions of the Texas Board of Nursing are unfair and vicious, or even more importantly, if you are a victim of these unconscionable acts of the board, sign this petition. Ultimately the goal should be a class action suit that would result in the Board being governed and held to the laws they wrote themselves, hold them accountable and require them to follow their own laws. At minimum, they are allowed to act as they do, they should pay for the requirements themselves, no nurses income has room for the thousands of dollars they are asking for.
If you believe the punishment should fit the crime and not every nurse regardless of the offense receive the same set of punishments, and that the actions of the Board should be aligned with Texas law, help us with your signature.
It takes 30 seconds, and is worth salvaging a profession that becomes less and less desirable and more and more needed as the Boards actions become more and more vicious to prudent nurses that have done absolutely nothing wrong.
Sign the petition
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