The BON's Authority to Interpret Regulations, Negligence, and Nurse Practice Act Statutes

In 2009, a charge nurse at a Delaware psychiatric center determined that a patient who collapsed on the floor was breathing but nonresponsive. Without performing a basic nursing assessment, the nurse left the patient to get help and was gone for 4 minutes until another staff member reported that the patient's condition was worsening. A few minutes later, the patient died of a pulmonary embolism. As a result, the state Department of Health and Social Services sought to place the nurse on the state's Adult Abuse Registry for neglecting the patient, and the state board of nursing (BON) charged the nurse with violating its regulations for failing to properly assess the medical condition of the patient. The BON found the nurse guilty of negligence as defined in the BON's statutes and regulations, not as defined in common law, which requires a causal link between the nurse's actions and the patient's death.