Attaining and Protecting Your Professional Nursing License

I intend to become licensed in Maine since I have already accepted a position at Maine Medical Center, and an additional per-diem position at Spring Harbor Hospital in Westbrook. Maine is a nurse licensure compact state. I do want to become a travel nurse after few years and may work in states that are not compact licensure states however, such as Massachusetts. 

The application for licensure for the state of Maine can be completed online, which I am happy about because it is much easier and efficient. The application for Maine licensure does not require an official transcript, but verification sig off from the director of the program is required for licensure. 

The state of Maine does require fingerprinting and a criminal background check to obtain nursing licensure. The fingerprinting criminal background check must be completed through the Maine Department of Public Safety, and a fingerprinting background check must also be submitted to the FBI as well. Since I am an internal Maine resident applying for licensure, I will be required to pay a fifty-two-dollar fee for my background check, which is relatively affordable. I also will be notified of my results within 48-72hrs of submitting my fingerprints and background check because I am already a Maine resident.

The state of Maine has a document of rules and regulations that provides guidelines for disciplinary action against nurses who violate the law while practicing as a nurse. Some of the grounds for action against a nursing license include using a fraudulent license, misuse of alcohol or drugs at work, aiding in the practice of nursing by a person who is not licensed, and incompetency in practice. These are just a few of the disciplinary actions that can result in revoking of a nursing license. Nurses can also be tried in civil and criminal cases in the state of Maine depending on the law that was broken. For nurses who are recovering from substance abuse, there are programs in place to help with treatment and working as a nurse after a license has been suspended. 

I will protect myself from these common legal issues in nursing practice by first educating myself on the laws of nursing practice and what my role is in each of these situations. I know that I need to ensure all my patients give informed consent to procedures and treatment and need to respect their decision if they are informed and ultimately refuse treatment. I also know how critical it is to document patient’s possessions because we have had trouble with losing patient items on the floor I work on currently. Malpractice and negligence can put me at a serious risk of losing my license, which is why I always ensure I take the best care of my patients that I possibly can. If I don’t know something such as medication interactions for example, I always make sure I look it up to avoid being negligent. Reviewing current practices is important so the nurse is always up to date and can provide the safest and most well-rounded care possible. Finally, nurses are mandatory reporters, so if they see any signs of child abuse, substance abuse among coworkers, or patient abuse for example, the nurse is mandated to report it.