Void for Vagueness Ruling: A Case for Rewriting Regulatory Rules

Three days after an outpatient procedure, a nurse-anesthetist began a sexual relationship with the patient who had undergone the procedure. Subsequently, the hospital terminated the nurse's privileges to practice as a nurse-anesthetist and filed a complaint with the board of nursing (BON), who found that he violated its rule on professionalism, which requires maintaining “appropriate professional boundaries.” On appeal, the district court overturned the BON's decision, finding that regulatory rules did not address when a patient stops being a patient and did not address consensual sex between a nurse and a patient or former patient. Therefore, the court ruled, the BON's decision was unreasonable. Rather than appeal the case, the BON focused on writing new rules to protect the public.