This is another post about DUI’s for health care professionals. I’m particularly concerned about a policy of the Nursing Board in my state [California]. That Board is aggressively seeking to place on probation any nurse who receives a single DUI [either by conviction or plea]. While obviously the Board has a very serious and legitimate interest in making sure license holders are not impaired by substance abuse, a single DUI, absent any other indications, hardly seems to justify an order of probation. This is particularly true given the fact that many hospitals will fire a nurse placed on probation. This employment policy may partly be CYA, and it may also arise out of the fact probation orders in this state typically forbid the probationer from supervising other health care workers. Hospitals often expect RN’s to supervise LVN’s, techs, aides and other workers in the hospital. An RN who cannot supervise others may lose much of his or her value to the hospital, hence the termination for being on probation.
If the DUI is truly an isolated incident in the life of an RN who is evaluated and found not to be an alcoholic, never to have been intoxicated at work and otherwise considered a good worker and valuable member of the health care team, why place that person on probation, possibly meaning they become unemployable? How does this make sense when there is a shortage of good RNs? And is this a rational use of scarce enforcement resources? It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.
It would be nice if the California Hospital Association or the large health care systems in the state could bring this to the attention of the governor and try to see if we could have a more rational, nuanced policy. Some sort of citation or reprimand that is less than probation would seem to make a lot more sense for a health care professional who gets a DUI, absent any other evidence of impairment. At least that’s how it looks to me.
