Jenny Barnhouse, Executive Director
Oklahoma Board of Nursing
P.O. Box 52926
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73152
Re: Jackson, Case No. 3.2023050214.25
Dear Executive Director Barnhouse:
This office has received your request for a written Attorney General Opinion regarding the action that the Oklahoma Board of Nursing intends to take in the above-referenced case. The Respondent is licensed to practice licensed practical nursing in the State of Oklahoma and holds a single-state license.
The Oklahoma Nursing Practice Act authorizes the Board to impose discipline when a nurse “[f]ails to adequately care for patients or to conform to the minimum standards of acceptable nursing” in a way that “unnecessarily exposes a patient or other person to risk of harm[,]” “[i]s guilty of unprofessional conduct[,]”[1] or “[i]s guilty of any act that jeopardizes a patient’s life, health or safety[.]”[2] 59 O.S.2021, § 567.8(B)(3), (7-8).
In a February 5, 2025 Complaint, Board staff alleged that on or about December 1-2, 2022, Respondent, while working as a field nurse on the 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. shift at a home health facility in Edmond ("Home Health"), abandoned her patient care assignment and failed to adequately care for Patient #1 when Respondent fell asleep while on duty.[3] Respondent documented the following in Patient #1's Home Health medical record: "I accidentally fell asleep and awoke around 6. I hurried to check on pt and found his pulse ox finger probe had fallen off. Pulse ox was reapplied and there was no [heart rate] and the oxygen level was 74%. I moved pulse ox to another finger and reading was the same. I felt for pulse and did not feel a pulse. I turned patient over and from prone position to supine position and saw pts lips were blue. I called for mom and started CPR. After calling for her twice more the dad came in and helped me move Pt to floor and we continued CPR. As we were moving pt to floor mom came in. Mom handed me the epi pen and I gave epi in left thigh. I am not sure if she called 911 before or after this though. Dad and I continued CPR with me starting out with chest compressions and dad with breaths. At some point we exchanged jobs before the ambulance arrived. Ambulance arrived and took over CPR. I am not sure how long they were there before they took pt to hospital." Patient #1 was pronounced dead at 0835 a.m. on December 2, 2022. On or about December 5, 2022, Respondent "chose that she no longer wanted to work as a nurse. No corrective action plan" per the Home Health CEO. Respondent admitted in part and denied in part the allegations in her response to the Complaint.
At the hearing on March 27, 2025, the Board found Respondent guilty of unprofessional conduct and proposes to suspend Respondent’s single-state licensed practical nursing license for six (6) months and is further disciplined as follows: 1) within sixty (60) days prior to the submission of any reinstatement application Respondent must successfully complete Board approved training courses in Nursing Jurisprudence and Critical Thinking, to include moral reasoning; 2) prior to submission of any reinstatement application pay an administrative penalty of Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00) to the Oklahoma Board of Nursing by certified check or money order only; 3) Respondent shall complete and submit to the Board documentation of an Evaluation that meets the requirements outlined in the Board’s Order, to include fitness to practice, performed by a licensed psychologist, completed within ninety (90) days prior to the submission of any reinstatement application to the Board; 4) the Evaluation may be reviewed by an Informal Disposition Panel for the purpose of recommending to the Board any further disciplinary orders regarding Respondent’s license; 5) upon the reinstatement of Respondent’s single-state nursing license, Respondent’s license shall be placed on probation for employment as a licensed nurse for 1,440 cumulative worked hours to be completed within two (2) years and during this probationary period, Respondent shall work in a hospital and/or healthcare agency under the supervision of not more than two (2) registered nurses who will agree to comply with the Guidelines for Supervised Practice in effect at the time of reinstatement; 6) a copy of the Board’s Order and all attachments and amendments must be furnished to each prospective employer and to supervising registered nurse(s) while Respondent’s license is on probation; 7) the terms of the Board’s Order shall apply to the practice of nursing of any kind, including practice while enrolled in a nursing education program; 8) upon the reinstatement of Respondent’s single-state licensed practical nursing license, it shall be marked “Active-Probation.”
Further, prior to Respondent’s successful completion of the Board’s Order, any violations of the Oklahoma Nursing Practice Act by Respondent may require Respondent to appear before the Board and show cause why Respondent’s single-state licensed practical nurse license should not be revoked or other action taken as deemed necessary and proper. Failure to comply with submission of the written documentation, or other violations of the Oklahoma Nursing Practice Act, will require Respondent’s appearance before the Informal Disposition panel and/or the Board to show cause why Respondent’s single-state license should not be revoked or such other action taken as the Board deems necessary and proper. Upon successful completion of the terms of the Board’s Order, all encumbrances shall be removed from Respondent’s single-state licensed practical nurse license.
It is, therefore, the official opinion of the Attorney General that the Oklahoma Board of Nursing has adequate support for the conclusion that this action advances the State’s policy to protect public health, safety, and welfare by ensuring nurses meet minimum standards of professional conduct.
Cheryl Dixon
Deputy General Counsel
[1] Unprofessional conduct includes “leaving a nursing assignment or patient care assignment without properly advising appropriate personnel,” or “conduct detrimental to the public interest.” OAC 485:10-11-1(b)(3)(F),(H).
[2] Conduct that jeopardizes a patient’s life, health, and safety includes failing to utilize appropriate judgment in “administering safe nursing practice” and “patient care[.]” OAC 485:10-11-1(b)(2)(3)(F)(H)(4)(D).
[3] The Board’s Abandonment Statement provides Guidelines to specific situations that may constitute abandonment. It states that abandonment may include but is not limited to: “[l]eaving the employment site during an assigned patient care shift after the nurse has come on duty and accepted the assignment of patient(s) for the shift without properly advising appropriate personnel” and “[s]leeping while on duty without a supervisor’s approval that is consistent with written institutional policy.”
