In California, it takes an average of three years to investigate and discipline registered nurses who break the rules or provide substandard care. During that time, nurses often keep practicing, sometimes placing patients at risk. Hundreds of nurses were even given probation by the board, but allowed to continue working even as they failed to adhere to the rules — including one nurse who, while on probation, “missed 38 drug screens, tested positive for alcohol five times and was fired from a job before the board revoked his probation three years later.” That’s according to a report published in the Los Angeles Times , based on a review of thousands of cases in which nurses in the state were disciplined between 2002 and 2008. The state’s Board of Registered Nursing responded with this list of process

improvements , which includes hiring 12 new staff members to work on enforcement and probation. “We take what we do — protecting the public — very, very seriously,” the board’s executive officer told the LAT. The story includes the standard complement of chilling anecdotes. One nurse twisted a patient’s jaw until he screamed in pain, and threw another’s water jug against the wall and yelled, “How do you like your water now?” according to state records cited by the article. After resigning from one job and being reported to the state board, the nurse went on to work at other hospitals. He was accused of assaulting other patients, and convicted of battery and inflicting pain, the LAT says.

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With State Board Slow to Act, Problem Nurses Keep Working