After graduating nursing school in May, I plan to become licensed in the state of New Hampshire as I have already accepted a job there. New Hampshire is luckily a Nurse Licensure Compact state, which will make career changes down the road much easier for me. Unfortunately, New Hampshire requires a paper-based application for Licensure by Examination for all Registered Nurses. The application initially required an FBI criminal background check with fingerprinting; however, with COVID-19, I believe they are postponing all fingerprinting and currently just requiring a state background check per the NHBON website (if I understood it correctly). I am required to have UNE send along my final official transcript directly to them, and I have not read anything about director sign-off being required.

The New Hampshire Board of Nursing, in the past few years, has established a program to help nurses in the state who are currently struggling with alcohol or drug addiction. This program was finally put in place to help better protect patients, aid nurses struggling with their addiction, and help retain professional nurses during this national nursing shortage crisis. If the nurse willingly self-reports to the board that they require help, they will, without penalty, be referred to a center for treatment, and be continually monitored even after their return to work to ensure full completion and adherence to their recovery plan. The state, currently trying to recover from staggering number of opioid misuses, wanted to allow for these professionals a program where they will not lose their license, their job, and their dignity. If reported by another professional, the defendant would be allotted to take this option and seek treatment if they want. The program is 100% voluntary, but the consequence of not attending would in fact be loss of their license.

I plan to protect myself and my license from that list of legal issues by looking into malpractice insurance and determine how many nurses at my place of employment carry their own coverage. I also plan to follow hospital policy to the tee, an effort which is sure to protect me since I will be following the rules they have set in place to protect themselves and their staff. I also plan to be an active bystander. If I see that a patient was not properly consented, I plan to intervene and question the provider and the patient to ensure that full consent and full comprehension was attained. I also plan to stay up to date on any new legislature that is passed in the state of New Hampshire so that I am consistently in line with the law.