Safe Harbor

The Texas Board of Nursing (BON) implemented Safe Harbor for nurses to have a formal procedure to object to an unsafe situation in the workplace. The nurse’s duty is always to the patient! The BON (2013) refers to the duty of a nurse “always advocate for patient safety, including any nursing action necessary to comply with the standards of nursing practice and to avoid engaging in unprofessional conduct. This includes administrative decisions directly affecting a nurse's ability to comply with that duty.” If a nurse is put in a position where they feel that safe harbor should be implemented the steps afforded to them must be followed explicitly. The BON offers an abbreviated version of the form for safe harbor that can be filled out quickly, but the comprehensive version of the safe harbor form must be filled out before the end of the work period. According the BON (2013) “a nurse invoking Safe Harbor may engage in the requested assignment or conduct while awaiting peer review determination unless the conduct or assignment is one that would constitute unprofessional or criminal conduct, or the nurse lacks the basic knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to competently perform the assignment.” Another step in the Safe Harbor process according to the BON (2013) “the supervisor should sign the form and the nurse’s copy and submit the form to the Peer Review Chairperson since a peer review meeting to review the request must be set within 14 days of the nurse invoking Safe Harbor.” Marshall and Zolierek (2012) state “the Texas Nurse Practice Act requires organizations that employ 10 or more nurses to establish a nursing peer review committee for the purpose of reviewing practice incidents that potentially meet conditions for reporting to the Board of Nursing and to review nurses' requests for “safe harbor” in situations where the nurse believes she/he was in a practice situation with potential risk for violating a duty to the patient” (p. 36). The Peer Review