Nursing Program Challenges
Nursing programs are rigorous. Nursing programs challenge students not only to do their best but also to do their most, studying and learning the most within relatively short spans across terms and clinical assignments. The classroom and book learning stretches the nursing student's mind. The clinical courses stretch the nursing student's mind, body, and emotions, counting the long hours and numerous stresses. Clinical work is exciting. It can also be stressful, bringing challenges not only with learning, applying, and proving new skills but also with patient, peer, and supervisor relationships. Clinical work is where the proverbial rubber meets the road. And not all nursing students are quite up to clinical work's extra challenges or able to prove to their supervisor and others that they are meeting those challenges. If you face misconduct, academic progression, or professionalism charges in your nursing program, retain national school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento to help defend and defeat those charges.
Falsifying Nursing Clinical Hours
A study on academic dishonesty among undergraduate nursing students, published in a clinical medical journal, concludes that “[a]cademic dishonesty amongst nursing students has become a common occurrence” due to the program's pressure and rigor. You are not alone if you feel that pressure. The study found that 84% of undergraduate nursing students feel the pressure to succeed academically. Another 74% of nursing students find limited time available to study. That combination means 71% of nursing students fear losing status among peers. Moreover, an extraordinary 71% of nursing students feel the negative impact of successful cheating. And when the question becomes what academic dishonesty are nursing students witnessing in clinical assignments, the study found that nursing students know that other students are “signing the clinical register but not reporting for duty or [are] leaving the assigned shift early but signing the normal time.” Falsifying clinical nursing hours can be a big deal in nursing student circles, as nursing chat boards confirm. The study reiterates that “a vast number of nursing students participate in academically dishonest behaviors.” If your nursing program has charged you with falsifying clinical hours, know that you are not alone in facing those allegations. Retain national school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento to help you overcome those charges.
Nursing School Clinical Hours Requirements
Nursing programs must require substantial clinical hours to meet their educational goals and satisfy accrediting agencies. The federal government recognizes the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) as the national accrediting body for nursing programs. The CCNE's accreditation standards require that nursing programs having a direct care component must plan adequate clinical experiences to meet those care component educational goals. Nursing schools must meet the CCNE's accreditation requirements, including documenting nursing student clinical hours, to maintain their all-important accreditation. When you sign and certify your clinical hours, you create a record that accreditors may audit to approve or disapprove your nursing program's accreditation. Nursing programs take these accreditation requirements seriously. Duke University's leading School of Nursing, for example, requires nearly eight-hundred hours of clinical experience at sites in the Duke University Health System or other locations around the world. The equally prominent Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing similarly requires hundreds of hours of clinical coursework across every one of the five semesters of its Master of Science in Nursing entry program.
How Falsified Clinical Hours Issues Arise
The above study on academic dishonesty among undergraduate nursing students further articulates how falsified hours and other academic dishonesty issues arise among nursing students. Program pressures and cheating by other nursing students are two factors. But the study also finds that in some cases, nursing students are uncertain about what actions constitute academic dishonesty. Students may fail to distinguish completing required documentation, including patient charting and registering for full clinical hours, from completing the underlying performance. Behavioral personality traits also influence falsified clinical hours. Other influences include peer pressure, unproductive studies, inadequate moral growth, daring behavior not to get caught, the will to succeed by any means, low academic standing, and the financial and academic impacts of not completing courses. Inadequate time management and a lax clinical environment also cause nursing students to rationalize and justify actions they may realize are dishonest. Nursing programs find plenty of contributing factors to falsified clinical hours.
Nursing School Rules Against Falsified Hours
In their student codes of conduct, nursing programs routinely prohibit academic dishonesty, including falsifying clinical hours. The National Student Nurses' Association urges nursing programs to adopt its model Code of Ethics. That code requires nurses to be honest in all respects in their clinical course assignments. Prominent nursing programs like the University of Michigan School of Nursing accordingly adopt student codes of conduct requiring accurate entry of actual nursing hours. The University of Michigan School of Nursing undergraduate handbook, in several places, admonishes students that falsification of clinical data of any kind, which would include clinical hours registry logs, is a serious breach of academic honesty warranting punishment. The handbook contains detailed documentation procedures for students who miss clinical hours. Your nursing program will have rules against falsifying clinical hours. Those rules, typically included in the student code of conduct or student handbook, will either generally or specifically prohibit misrepresenting clinical hours. You may face disciplinary charges for academic misconduct if you falsify clinical hours in your nursing program. Retain national school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento to help you defend and defeat disciplinary charges relating to alleged falsification of clinical hours.
Disciplinary Procedures for Falsified Clinical Hours
Your nursing program will have published or unpublished procedures to determine charges against students who falsify clinical hours. Those procedures may be a part of your program's student code of conduct or student handbook. The University of Michigan School of Nursing, for example, publishes misconduct procedures governing its undergraduate nursing students in its student handbook. Those procedures begin with written misconduct reports to the school's Resolutions Officer within ten days of the alleged occurrence. The Resolutions Officer must then notify the accused nursing student within ten days of receiving the report. The Resolutions Officer must also meet with the accused student within that initial ten days to attempt an informal resolution. Charges that do not resolve informally either with charge dismissal or the student's admission to the misconduct, go before a hearing panel. The panel includes two nursing faculty members and one nursing student. The student must submit written documentation before the hearing but may bring witnesses and other evidence to the hearing. The school's procedures permit the student to bring an attorney advisor to the hearing to assist the student. The hearing panel decides the charges in writing shared with the accused student and the student's attorney advisor. If you face formal misconduct charges over falsified clinical hours at your nursing school, retain national school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento to help you through the disciplinary procedures for your best possible outcome.
Sanctions and Consequences for Falsified Clinical Hours
Misconduct findings for falsified clinical hours can result in serious sanctions, depending on the circumstances, including any mitigating evidence. Nursing programs routinely reserve to their disciplinary officials the discretion to impose a wide range of sanctions. The University of Washington School of Nursing's undergraduate student handbook, for example, permits the dean's disciplinary representative to impose a reprimand, restitution, disciplinary probation, suspension, or expulsion. Nursing schools may also revoke clinical course credit, require the student to repeat the clinical assignment, require extra academic work or clinical hours, and require remedial ethical training. The collateral consequences of a misconduct finding, though, can be just as serious as the direct sanctions. If you are dealt any form of discipline for falsifying clinical hours, you may lose references, recommendation letters, job and internship opportunities, and opportunities to enter a graduate nursing program or other educational program. In the case of suspension or dismissal, you may also lose university housing, medical care, and transportation and face accelerated student loans. Discipline can also impact your mentor, family, and friend relationships, as well as your reputation and career. Don't let discipline for falsified clinical hours ruin your educational and career goals. Retain national school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento to help you beat those charges.
Nursing School Falsified Hours Appeals
Disciplinary proceedings over falsified clinical hours do not always reach a proper resolution, especially when a nursing student does not have skilled and experienced attorney advisor representation. Disciplinary officials and panels may fail to follow the required protective procedures. The hearing may occur before an official or panel of officials who have conflicts of interest or exhibit bias against the student. The charges may also lack reliable supporting evidence, or the sanction may be unnecessary and unfair due to mitigating circumstances. Any of these grounds may warrant an appeal and reversal of misconduct sanctions. Your school likely offers appeal procedures, like the appeal procedures at the University of California Los Angeles School of Nursing. Those procedures refer appeals to the School of Nursing's Student Affairs Committee for review and redetermination. The Committee has the power to either affirm or overturn the initial decision. An appeal can reverse a bad decision. But appeals require special advocacy skills, much more than a simple statement of disagreement with the outcome. Retain national school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento to pursue your disciplinary appeal.
Nursing School Alternative Special Relief
You may have already exhausted all of your nursing program's published hearing and appeal procedures while still facing discipline for falsified clinical hours. If so, don't give up. National school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento has helped many students gain alternative special relief through school oversight channels. Nursing schools, like other educational programs, depend on general counsel, outside retained counsel, and similar oversight officials to ensure that they meet legal and regulatory requirements, avoid liability and litigation risk, and do their best to treat students fairly. Attorney advisor Lento has the national network and reputation for negotiating with those oversight officials for relief outside of the school's published procedures. Retain attorney advisor Lento to pursue that alternative relief. It may be your best option.
Defending Falsified Clinical Hours Charges
You can discern from the above discussion that skilled and experienced attorney advisor representation can play a huge role in your ability to achieve a positive outcome to your misconduct charges. When you retain national school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento, his firm's student defense team can identify and gather the required evidence, research the applicable procedures, and communicate promptly, firmly, and clearly with disciplinary officials to strategically invoke those procedures to your best advantage. Attorney advisor Lento and his student defense team can also find or create opportunities to communicate, advocate, and negotiate with disciplinary and oversight officials for early informal resolution. Attorney advisor Lento can also help you document your favorable resolution, including ensuring that the school has cleared your record of any charges. Retaining skilled and experienced attorney advisor representation is your best move toward your best outcome.
Premier Attorney Advisor Available to Defend Charges
Defending academic administrative misconduct charges, including charges for falsifying nursing program clinical hours, requires a special skill set. Don't retain a local criminal defense attorney if you face those disciplinary charges. Criminal courts follow different rules and procedures, and have different customs and expectations, from academic administrative cases. What works in criminal court may do more harm than good in academic administrative settings. You need the skills and experience of national school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento to obtain the best possible outcome for falsified clinical hours charges. Attorney advisor Lento has defended hundreds of students nationwide on misconduct charges of all kinds. He has the commitment, special knowledge of academic, administrative customs and procedures, and substantial reputation and experience to provide you with outstanding defense services. Call 888.535.3686 or go online now to retain attorney advisor Lento.
