New Legislative Session

I am starting to see the drafts of proposed legislation for 2009. Be sure that you are monitoring what is being proposed for nursing. If you are looking at proposing new legislation that impacts nurses, please consider the following changes that would help to make the administrative process fair:

My wishes:

-make the State Office of Administrative Hearings the final decision in administrative cases. Stop allowing agencies the opportunity to overturn the Judge's decision. If a party is unhappy with the decision, either party can appeal the decision to the District Court. This would make the administrative process fair and just for both the licensee and the agency. This needs to apply to all licensed health care practitioners, not just nurses.

-stop allowing deferred adjudications to be considered as convictions in administrative actions. This goes against the rationale for deferred adjudications and it is very unfair to licensees.