Nurses, even ARNPs, still face imbalances in disciplinary matters

Washington’s Department of Health, Health Systems Quality Assurance Division issues Uniform Disciplinary Act Biennial Reports to assist in its regulation and oversight of healthcare providers in the state. The most recent publication, for 2018-2019, can be found online at https://www.doh.wa.gov/Portals/1/Documents/2000/631093-UDAReport2017-2019.pdf

The prior publication for 2015-2017 was evaluated previously on our blog here.

Previously, just looking at the numbers between various professions, it was noteworthy that when a physician was disciplined in 2015-2017, the discipline resolved with informal disposition roughly 54.2% whereas it resolved similarly only about 27% of the time for Registered Nurses. A similar trend applied to Pharmacists and Chiropractors versus Licensed Practical Nurses. The more recently published data reflects physicians and dentists were offered informal dispositions that resolved 51% and 62% of the disciplinary matters respectively. Meanwhile, Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioners and Registered nurses were given the same resolution 30% and 31% of the time, in comparison. The area of dentists and physicians did not see much growth, while ARNP and RN professions have enjoyed some growth. However, it is still apparent that there is a disparity between how the professions treat themselves compared to others, and the takeaway is still that Nurses, even ARNPs, beware in Washington when dealing with disciplinary matters.