NAC632.895. Interpretations for purposes of disciplinary action.

For the purposes of disciplinary action on the following grounds, the following interpretations apply:

     1. An offense involving moral turpitude includes an act of dishonesty, baseness, vileness or depravity in the private or social duties which a person owes to another person or to society contrary to the accepted and customary rule of right and duty between human beings.

     2. Gross negligence in carrying out usual nursing functions includes a departure from established and customary standards of care which would have been exercised by a licensed nurse or an act or omission where there is a legal duty to act or to refrain from acting. An exercise of so slight a degree of care as to justify the belief that there was a conscious or overt disregard or indifference for the health, safety, well-being or welfare of the public is considered a substantial departure from the accepted standard of care.

     3. Habitual intemperance or addiction to the use of any controlled substance includes the use of those substances to the extent that the person’s judgment, skills or ability to provide safe and competent nursing care are impaired, that the person is unable to care for himself or herself, his or her property or the members of his or her family, or that it is medically determined that the person is in need of medical or psychiatric care, treatment, rehabilitation or counseling.

     4. Unfitness to practice nursing or mental incompetence includes an order of a court adjudging that a person is mentally incompetent, an evaluation by a qualified professional person indicating that he or she is mentally or physically incapable of engaging in professional or practical nursing in a manner consistent with sound care of patients, or an uncorrected physical defect that precludes him or her from safely performing nursing functions.

     5. An offense involving abuse or neglect includes an act by a licensee or holder of a certificate that constitutes the failure to provide such service, care or supervision as is reasonable and necessary to maintain the health or safety of a patient if:

     (a) The act or omission is intentional, reckless or grossly negligent;

     (b) The act or omission is such a departure from what would be the conduct of an ordinarily prudent, careful person under the same circumstances that it is contrary to a proper regard for danger to human life or constitutes indifference to the resulting consequences;

     (c) The consequences of the act or omission could have been reasonably foreseen; and

     (d) The danger to human life was not the result of:

          (1) The failure to attend to a duty under circumstances that require the attention of the licensee or holder of a certificate;

          (2) A mischance, accident or casualty caused by the licensee or holder of a certificate upon a person without an intent to harm or hurt the person but which results in injury to or the death of the person; or

          (3) An unintentional act, omission or error in judgment by the licensee or holder of a certificate,

Ê but was the natural and probable result of the act or omission.

     6. An act of patient abandonment occurs if:

     (a) A licensee or holder of a certificate has been assigned and accepted a duty of care to a patient;

     (b) The licensee or holder of a certificate departed from the site of the assignment without ensuring that the patient was adequately cared for; and

     (c) As a result of the departure, the patient was in potential harm or actually harmed.

     (Added to NAC by Bd. of Nursing, eff. 8-5-86; A 5-18-94; 5-9-96)