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For the Nursing Profession


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      Our mission is to reduce nurses' fear of the law and to minimize nurses' exposure to litigation.  Nurse managers need to spot potential legal problems and prevent them before they happen. Managers and clinical nurses need to be familiar with how the law is applied by the courts to specific patient-care situations, so that they can act with confidence.  
    We work toward our goals every month by highlighting the very latest important Federal and state court decisions and new Federal regulations directly affecting nurses in hospitals, long term care facilities and home health agencies. We focus on nursing negligence and nurses' employment and licensing issues.    Our readers are professionals in nursing management, nursing education, clinical nursing, healthcare risk management, legal nurse consulting and law.

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Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter

For the Nursing Profession

PO Box 1342 Sedona AZ 86339

(206) 718-0861 

 

Whistleblower: Nurse Protected From Retaliation, Reported Violations Of Nursing Regulations.

  The Whistleblower Law does not expressly apply to this nurse who was not an employee of a public agency.

  Nevertheless the state's nursing regulations set out a clear public policy for protection of patients from incompetent nursing practice.

  The nurse cannot be made the victim of employer retaliation or reprisal for complaining about and refusing to participate in a violation of state nursing regulations. UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT PENNSYLVANIA July 27, 2016

 

    Whistleblower Law in Pennsylvania, as in a number of states, very strictly limits which employees qualify and which do not qualify as whistleblowers with legal rights to protection from employer reprisals.

    A nurse was fired after she complained to her supervisor and then went over her head to management and then complained to the corporate compliance officer that she was being asked to violate the state's nursing regulations.

    However, the Whistleblower Law in Pennsylvania only applies to employees who blow the whistle on illegal practices by public agencies, not private corporations like this nurse's employer.

    Nevertheless the US District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania ruled the state's nursing regulations created implicit legal rights for her.

    If the employer's conduct violates a clear expression of public policy the employee is protected from reprisals for refusing to participate or for complaining or reporting it, even if the employee is not expressly covered by the Whistleblower Law, the Court ruled.

    The Court agreed with the nurse that the state nursing regulations set out a clear public policy which prohibits a nurse from performing venipuncture for a central catheter without special instruction and supervision.

    The nursing regulations further require a nurse to safeguard patients from incompetent nursing practice and prohibit a nurse from knowingly aiding, abetting or assisting another person in violating the state's nursing regulations. The nurse can sue over her termination. Voyles v. Hospital, 2016 WL 4011270 (M.D. Penna., July 27, 2016).

More references from nursinglaw.com

http://www.nursinglaw.com/whistleblower-nurse-discharge.htm

 

http://www.nursinglaw.com/whistleblower.htm

 

http://www.nursinglaw.com/whistleblower-collective-bargaining.htm

 

http://www.nursinglaw.com/whistlblower-nurse-court-case.htm

 

http://www.nursinglaw.com/whistleblower-EMTALA-nurse.htm