Five Essential Tips to Protect Your Healthcare License in Texas

Your healthcare license represents years of education, training, and dedication—but how much do you know about protecting it? In this powerful episode of Know Your Regulator, we reveal five crucial strategies Texas healthcare professionals need to implement immediately to safeguard their careers.
 
 Drawing from conversations with regulatory experts and real-world cases, host Cimone Murphree delivers actionable insights that go beyond generic advice. You'll discover why something as simple as keeping your address updated with your board could prevent a career-ending oversight, and why responding to complaints without first requesting the investigative file puts you at a significant disadvantage. We explore the often-overlooked importance of comprehensive liability insurance with board defense coverage—a protection many professionals don't realize they need until it's too late.
 
 Perhaps most compelling is our candid discussion about mental health as a license protection strategy. Expert guest Dr. Brian Russell explains why "white-knuckling it" through stress and burnout creates substantial risks to your practice and how recognizing when you need support demonstrates professional strength, not weakness. We close with powerful guidance on knowing and using the specific regulations that protect you in challenging workplace situations, complete with real examples of how to professionally invoke these protections to maintain both patient safety and your professional standing.
 
 Whether you're a nurse, doctor, pharmacist, dentist, or other licensed healthcare provider in Texas, these five essential strategies will transform how you approach license protection. Subscribe to Know Your Regulator and don't miss our new weekly series, launching June 27th, featuring focused content specifically for healthcare professionals. Your career deserves this protection - tune in now.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
This podcast is for educational purposes only, does
not constitute legal advice anddoes not create an
attorney-client relationship.
If you need legal assistanceabout a legal problem, contact
an attorney.
Welcome back to Know yourRegulator, the podcast that
inspires you to engage.
I am your host, simone Murphy,and today's episode is a quick
but powerful one, especially ifyou are a nurse, doctor,

(00:24):
pharmacist really any medicalprofessional who holds a license
here in Texas.
We've pulled together five ofthe most important things that
you need to know to protect yourlicense, based on real
conversations with our guests.
Now, these are not just tips.
These are the takeaways thatprofessionals wish they had
known sooner.
So let's get into it.

(00:44):
Tip number one don't miss themail.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Our doctors will always be notified of a
complaint by a letter thatthey're going to receive in the
mail.
That kind of shows theimportance right there of
keeping your contact informationup to date with us, because if
we have an old, out-of-datemailing address on file, you're
not going to get the notice ofcomplaint and then you're not
going to be able to respond,which means you can't defend
yourself.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
You don't want to find out about a complaint after
a decision's already been made.
The board still use physicalmail, so make sure if you move,
you keep your address up to date.
It's one of the simplest waysto stay protected.
Tip number two ask for theinvestigative file.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
With the board of nursing you're going to get the
notice and a lot of people don'tknow.
But now you know that you needto ask for the investigative
file.
They call it the investigativefile, but it's basically all the
evidence that the board hasreceived against you.
Unlike a lot of boards,unfortunately, in Texas with the
board of nursing you areentitled to all those records.

(01:43):
So a lot of times nurses youknow might hire us after they've
already responded and theyhaven't even gotten the evidence
, which is kind of like you know, if you've seen any like law
drama.
That's not what you want to do.
You want to know what the factsare, what the evidence is
against you, and then yourespond.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Don't try and explain yourself without knowing what
the board's looking at.
You have a right to theevidence they have against you,
and that's where your defensebegins.
Moving on to tip number three,get legal coverage in your
liability plan.

Speaker 4 (02:13):
The best tip that I was ever given was with my
partner in crime during ourinternship.
We had just graduated.
So I'm looking at liabilityplans and I'd always had my own
in grad school because I didn'ttrust my grad school at
liability plans.
And I'd always had my own ingrad school because I didn't
trust my grad school valid.
And she was just like make sureyou get the representation part

(02:34):
of your liability plan.
And I was like what?
And she goes, yeah, they'll doboard defense or any time that
you know if you're sued, they'llhelp pay for the lawyer legal
protection isn't just forlawsuits.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
If a board complaint is filed against you, you may
need a defense attorney, andgood insurance can help cover
that.
Tip number four take care ofyour mental health.

Speaker 5 (02:53):
It's sometimes the case, kind of paradoxically,
that the strongest person is theperson who does recognize that
they need some help and iswilling to avail themselves of
the help that's out there,whether it's from an EAP or a
professional assistance programor just their own psychologist
or their own doctor, at least asa place to start.

(03:15):
I think sometimes the personwho recognizes that it's a long
game that you're playing andeven if you could continue to
sort of white knuckle it whichis a common thing, people
struggling tend to kind of tellthemselves well, it's going to
get better, if I just go on alittle bit longer, then I'll get
a breather and I'll be able tosort of reset and retool and

(03:35):
really that's sort of somedenial talking there.
So I think the folks whoactually are strong enough to
say you know, what I want is asustainable practice.
I don't want to help you knowrelatively small number of folks
over the next little while andthen burn out or wash out or get
kicked out of the profession.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
I want to help a relatively large number of
people over a period of years ordecades going forward.
Caregiver fatigue is real.
Don't ignore the stress, thesleepless nights, the self-doubt
.
Protecting your license startswith protecting your health.
And our final tip, tip numberfive know the rules that protect
you and how are you going to dothat?

Speaker 6 (04:11):
Because it's easy for us to sit here and talk about
that, right, but what are yougoing to use?
You're going to use what we'regoing to.
We're telling you the rules andregulations.
When I show up to my job andthey're trying to give me, let's
just say, an unsafe assignment,what am I going to say?
Well, okay, you're not going toget animated and activated.
I have concerns about this.
Not right to safe Harbor, let'stalk about this.

(04:33):
So two, 17, 11, one S saysmaking an unsafe assignment, me,
you making that and tease meaccepting that.
So if I don't have theeducation, training and
knowledge is that thatregulation says, how can I
accept this unsafe assignment?
And then, if we look at civillitigation, the definition of
medical malpractice is no onlywilling to take on an unsafe

(04:53):
assignment.
So, before I do that, can we,you know, use the chain of
command?
Can we get the charge nursehere?
Can we maybe get the housesupervisor?
Maybe there's a nurse in pre-opor somewhere else that can come
here and help task to alleviatethings.
But that's going to be in partof your nursing foundation and
your nursing portfolio thatyou're going to build for

(05:15):
yourself.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
You are allowed to speak up.
You don't have to accept anunsafe assignment or break the
rules to meet the moment.
Know the rules, know thelanguage and don't be afraid to
use it.
We've heard from so many of youin the medical field and one
thing is clear you want morefocused content that speaks
directly to your profession.
So we've listened.
Want more focused content thatspeaks directly to your

(05:36):
profession.
So we've listened.
We're excited to announce abrand new weekly podcast series,
launching this Friday, June27th.
This series is going tospotlight timely issues, helpful
reminders, real-world guidancefor medical license holders,
delivered in quick, digestibleclips so you can catch it right
here or on social media.
Be sure to subscribe so youdon't miss an episode.
We can't wait to begin chartingthis course with you and, as

(05:57):
always, stay inspired andcontinue engaging with your
regulatory agency.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
Know your Regulator.
The podcast that inspires youto engage.