BORN Sets Dates for Public Hearings on Reg. Changes
Publishes Revised Standards of Conduct
New Draft

The Board of Registration in Nursing (BORN), the governmental agency that regulates nursing licensure in the state, has announced the dates for long-awaited public hearings concerning sweeping changes in the disciplinary regulations for nurses that will proposed by the BORN last January. The announcement of hearings accompanies the release of the BORN’s revised draft of proposed "Standards of Conduct" for registered nurses.

The initial release of the proposed standards met with great controversy within the nursing community, resulting in a statewide campaign by the MNA to educate and mobilize the nursing community to oppose many of the proposed regulations. The effort drew significant media attention and generated thousands of calls and letters into the BORN.

"Upon initial review of the revised document, the MNA is pleased to see that the vast majority of the most onerous aspects of the regulations have been removed," said Gloria Craven, MNA Director of Legislation and Government Affairs. "While there are still some areas of concern in the document, it is encouraging to see that the BORN has taken to heart the concerns of the nursing community and made strides to improve this document.

The hearings will be held at three different locations in the State during the week of September 13^th. Dates, local and times of the hearing are provided below:

• Monday, Sep. 13^th, DeLiso Conference Center, Mercy Hospital, 271 Carew St.,Springfield, 11a.m – 6 p.m.
  Click here for directions.
• Tuesday, Sep. 14th, Blackman Auditorium/Ell Building Main Auditorium at Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Ave. in Boston, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
  Click here for directions.
• Thursday, Sep. 16^th, UMass/Dartmouth, 285 Old Wesport Road in North Dartmouth 1 p.m. – 6 p.m.
  Click here for directions.

Nurses should note that at these hearings, nurses will be allowed to present testimony to the Board about the document. However, the board will not engage in a discussion of that testimony, but will listen to and record that testimony.

The announcement of public hearings comes months after the BORN first introduced its proposed draft of new "Standards of Conduct for Nursing Practice in December of 1998. The standards, as originally proposed, included more than 21 pages of proposed standards for ethical conduct and professional practice for nurses that have never before been written into the BORN regulations. According to the BORN, "a licensed nurse’s failure to comply with the Standards of Conduct for Nurses shall serve as the basis for a complaint against the nurse’s license, whether current or expired, and may result in disciplinary action…" Disciplinary action by the BORN could result in the suspension or revocation of the nurse’s license. The original document included a number of regulations the MNA believed penalized staff nurses, overstepped the authority of the BORN and were too vague and open to misinterpretation.

While the BORN had originally planned to hold hearings on the initial draft of the document last March, efforts by the MNA (including a series of Town Meetings for nurses in different regions of the state, and significant media coverage of the issue), the BORN was convinced to postpone the hearings and to take another look at the proposed draft.

The MNA is currently in the process of reviewing the revised document. As the MassNurse went to press, a meeting had been scheduled for a special Task Force of MNA members who have been following this process. Nurses are invited to check the MNA web site for updates on this process and to review an official position statement on the revised standards, which should be prepared by mid August.

All nurses in the Commonwealth are encouraged to obtain and review a copy of this vitally important document and to let their voices be heard by the BORN at public hearings in September. This is our last chance to influence regulations that could have a dramatic impact on every nurses’ ability to practice in the Commonwealth.