This could possibly be you: Cullen’s Law under the microscope

The law, which is known as after former registered nurse and convicted serial killer Charles Cullen, is nice in its intentions but harmful in its execution. That’s the view of two nurse attorneys representing nurses affected by the law. Kathleen Gialanella, RN, JD, LLM, and JoAnn Pietro, RN, JD say the law often targets the fallacious people and ruins the careers of health care employees – the overwhelming majority of them nurses – a few of whom should never have been reported to the Consumer Affairs Division. of the State of New Jersey (the “Division”) or its licensing boards.

Medical Staff Accountability and Reporting Improvement Act (Cullen’s Act) was enacted in May 2005 and requires health care professionals or entities to notify the Department after they develop into aware of knowledge regarding incompetence, impairment, or skilled misconduct that adversely affects patient care. It also mandates criminal background checks for health care employees applying for licensure in New Jersey. The law was intended to forestall other cases like Cullen, who was hired at various hospitals over the course of his 16-year profession despite having a questionable employment history. He claims to have killed no less than 40 patients, but he did convicted of killing 29 and is currently serving 11 consecutive life sentences. Some experts estimate that he killed closer 400 patients. Nearly 20 years after the Cullen Act was created, no changes have been made to handle the concerns expressed by many about its harmful consequences. Both Pietro and Gialanella also imagine that the Cullen Act, by design, didn’t necessarily prevent Charles Cullen from harming patients.

Gialanella said that under stricter reporting regulations, nurses are reporting issues similar to medication errors, substance abuse or behavior perceived as incompetent that is definitely the results of inexperience or a bigger failure of the health care system. The consequences of reporting a matter to the New Jersey State Board of Nursing (the “Board”), which reports to the department, will be devastating. One provision that Gialanella objects to is that under the law, an employer reporting a nurse to the Board is required to reveal details about that nurse’s report back to any potential employer for the following seven years. She noted that even customer reporting cases take for much longer than seven years. Potential employers will likely think twice about hiring a nurse who has been fired and reported to the Board (or not hire her in any respect), which is a big problem, says Gialanella, who has a law firm in Westfield, New Jersey. “I have a number of clients who have applied for jobs and have been told to come back after the council has resolved their case,” she said. However, on account of the backlog, it might take the New Jersey State Board several years to process the cases. She also disagreed with the time allowed for the nurses to defend themselves. “You must report this to the board within seven days of taking such action. Suppose a nurse is accused of making a practice error and is fired because of the error. This leaves very little time to convince the employer that they have made a mistake,” she said. Pietro, a person physician in Boontown Township, New Jersey, said nurses are also unfairly targeted because they’re hospital employees and hospitals can report them. On the opposite hand, doctors are sometimes not considered employees, but they enjoy advantages in hospitals. Hospitals are typically reluctant to report doctors who make errors unless the error could be very egregious, Pietro said. She added that lots of the nurses reported are victims of an unfair culture of their hospital or health care system. “Patient safety issues tend to be a multi-system failure – usually when nurses assign too many patients due to staffing shortages.” – said Pietro. “And when an error occurs, it falls on the nurse’s shoulders rather than management taking responsibility and realizing they lacked adequate staff or failed to provide adequate supervision to the nurse. Or there was a lack of supplies or availability to provide everything necessary. a nurse who was needed.” Despite a nationwide nursing shortage and a growing need for more experienced nurses, the Cullen Act also prevents New Jersey nurses who’ve been reported to the Board of Nursing from pursuing or advancing their careers after reporting to the Board. “If a registered nurse is applying for a higher licensure, such as an advanced practice nursing license, or another license, such as a respiratory therapist, those applications are placed on an indefinite hold until the substantive issue is resolved by the Board,” Pietro noted. “This is clearly unfair to the licensee.” Both Pietro and Gialanella fear that Cullen’s bill is a deterrent to entering the nursing career at a time when the health care system urgently needs nurses. They also highlighted the confusion nurses experience under the Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC), laws that enables nurses to have one license to practice in multiple states. “Nurses entering practice in New Jersey are unaware of how the Cullen Act may impact them and their careers,” Pietro noted. “They are not aware of the Act on Professional Responsibility of Healthcare Professionals and Improving Reporting. But when they fall into this web, they regret exercising their right or opportunity to work in New Jersey.”

If the nurse suspects she could also be near reporting, Gialanella and Pietro gave her the next advice:

• Find one other job. “If you see the writing on the wall, voluntarily resign and leave,” Pietro said. “If you don’t leave and you get fired, you may find yourself in a situation where you may not be able to find another job.”
• Don’t surrender while you’re under investigation. “The Cullen Act states that if a licensee resigns during an investigation, that must be reported to the Board,” Gialanella said.
• If they terminate your contract and inform you that you’ve got been reported under the Cullen Act, seek legal advice as soon as possible. “As a licensee tries to find a new job, the previous employer may provide potential employers with information about the employee that could make finding additional work nearly impossible,” Gialanella said.
• Remember that you’ve got the correct to review the identical notice that the hospital provides to the Board at the identical time that it’s provided to the Board. Also ask for a duplicate of supporting documents, Pietro said.
• Know that the law states that an expert doesn’t should be reported for substance abuse if she or he desires to enroll in a recovery and monitoring program.
• If you belong to a union, seek help out of your trade union.

Amy Loughren, a former associate of Charles Cullen, cooperated with the investigators who ultimately arrested him. As shown in Netflix movie Good nurse, Loughren commented on the Cullen Act and its impact on the nursing industry. “The Cullen Act was a knee-jerk response to the extremely complex issue of hospital negligence. Nurses cannot continue to pay the price for the organization’s failures,” Loughren noted. “Real changes need to be made to this law, including the criteria for reporting nurses.” “The heart of the law was in the right place. However, those who covered up Charles’ crimes have not yet been held accountable,” she added. Loughren appeared on a recent episode of the NurseDot podcast: “Good nurse” by which she asserted that poor risk management systems allowed Cullen to proceed killing and that the implications of those failures proceed to affect today’s health care system. Editor’s note: This post was originally published in February 2009 and has been updated with recent content.

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