Question:
Dear Nancy,
I was a nurse manager in 2004 at a facility where there was a drug addicted physician who had been under investigation for quite some time. The physician was eventually arrested and charged with numerous things. Unfortunately, I worked for her. I believe to get the heat off of herself, she claimed I forged a refill on a script she had given me for Ativan. I was arrested for fraud. I retained an attorney who advised me that the pretrial intervention program was the fastest way to resolve the issue. I reported this to the board myself and was rather surprised when they did not advocate for me.
To make a long story short, the nursing board said that they did not have to expunge this incident although there is no record anywhere else. It took me many years to finally have it removed from my license, which is clear at this time.
It was reported in NURSYS and as of 2010 my license shows up as having a disciplinary action. When I apply for jobs in surrounding states, the state boards say the disciplinary action was obtained in NURSYS. My board says they never remove anything from NURSYS once it?s put there.
NURSYS says my state board has to take action to have it removed, but my state board ignores my emails and phone calls. This is negatively impacting my career. Any suggestions on how to get this off NURSYS since I never was convicted and it?s legally been expunged.
Lois
Dear Nancy replies:
Dear Lois,
You certainly have been through a lot with this incident that occurred in 2004 and is still haunting you. Unfortunately, once something is placed in a national database, it is difficult to remove, and this is especially troublesome when the information is incorrect.
NURSYS clearly takes the position on its website that since all of the information comes from state boards of nursing, it is the nurse's responsibility to contact the board to update information on its website. You can see this at www.nursys.com, click on the HELP tab, then FAQs in the drop-down menu. Your question indicates you tried to contact the board in your initial state of licensure but to
no avail.
Your best bet would be to retain a nurse attorney or other attorney in your initial state of licensure who can utilize whatever process is available there to get the incorrect information changed and also to have the corrected information sent to NURSYS. Your attorney will probably need to contact the board's attorney so the two can work on this issue. Your attorney should be able to obtain the name of the board's legal counsel when contacting the board's office.
Sincerely,
Nancy
