Bill voids decades of regulatory decisions amid concern about investigatory process

TOPEKA — Lacey Grogan, Joshua Conner and Melissa Vaughn recounted traumatic nursing regulatory experiences in Kansas House testimony supporting an extraordinary bill written to force administrative changes at the Kansas State Board of Nursing.

The bill, if signed into law, would void state Board of Nursing disciplinary actions executed between Jan. 1, 2005, and July 1, 2026, including cases of licensure renewal and unprofessional conduct. Documents in the deleted cases would be sealed from the Kansas Open Records Act. Steps would be taken to remove from national databases information on nurses sanctioned by the Board of Nursing during the period.

A revised definition of unprofessional conduct for nurses — intended to rein in the Board of Nursing — would be retroactively applied to 2025. The definition would focus on alleged misconduct performed intentionally or carelessly but no longer include issues related to failure to timely renew a license.

In addition, the Board of Nursing would be required to adhere to a higher standard of proof in nurse disciplinary cases. It would shift from a preponderance of evidence to the more rigorous clear and convincing evidence.

Appointees of the Kansas governor to the Board of Nursing would undergo Senate confirmation. No member of the Legislature, attorney general or governor could serve on the board.

House Bill 2528 would make a series of other changes at the Board of Nursing applicable to the 74,000 nursing professionals licensed in Kansas.

The House Health and Human Services Committee gathered testimony Thursday from critics and champions of the Board of Nursing. The Board of Nursing came under intense scrutiny by the Legislature in mid-2025 as allegations of regulatory abuse became public.

Grogan, a registered nurse for 20 years who lives in St. Francis, told legislators she welcomed change at the Board of Nursing. While working at an understaffed rural Kansas hospital, Grogan said, she complied with professional standards by reporting a patient fall. The hospital’s administration retaliated by filing complaints against her with the Board of Nursing. Two were promptly dismissed, she said, but a third “lacking substantiated evidence was nevertheless pursued” by the Board of Nursing.

“I was denied a meaningful opportunity to speak on my own behalf without legal representation, pressured into signing a consent agreement for conduct I did not commit and ultimately fined and stripped of my nursing license,” Grogan said. “My name was included in a disciplinary mailer distributed to nurses statewide. Once reported to the national database, my licensure was called into question in nearly every other state where I held licensure.”

During emotional testimony, Grogan told legislators the “future of nursing depends on the decisions made in this room” to deal with the state regulatory board.

More than 25 people submitted testimony in support of the 23-page House bill. Seven individuals declared opposition.

Board’s viewpoint

Carol Moreland, executive administrator of the Board of Nursing since 2017, said provisions of HB 2528 could violate federal mandates and increased the risk of nurses harming the public. She questioned the Legislature’s heavy-handed approach to modifying authority of the Board of Nursing.

“No other regulatory board in Kansas is under this scrutiny and is being asked to make these unprecedented changes,” she said.

She objected to wiping out disciplinary decisions of the Board of Nursing for a period of two decades. She said that part of the bill would reverse sanctions against a school nurse who engaged in sexually inappropriate conduct with a student, a nurse who solicited prostitution at work and a nurse who stole credit cards from a patient and made purchases after the patient died.

“It’s not clear to us at the Board of Nursing what really happens next. If it’s voided, do they automatically have their license back?” Moreland said.

Another flaw in the bill required the Board of Nursing to send a flurry of notices to nurses approaching their two-year license renewal date, said Carol Moore, a retired advance practice nurse and former associate dean of Baker University’s nursing program. The bill would mandate renewal notices go out 90 days, 60 days, 30 days and seven days prior to the deadline, on the renewal date and seven days after that date.

“How much handholding does an educated professional require?” Moore said. “I do not see anything as written in this bill to enhance the care of patients nor to advance the stature of nursing.”

Topeka registered nurse Kelly Sommers said the Legislature should “put a stop to this embarrassment” of a bill. She said reforms in the bill appeared to be crafted in a way “to satisfy a handful of nurses who refuse to accept personal responsibility.”

Case histories

Joshua Connor, an opponent of the bill, said he worked for a decade with elderly adults as a licensed practical nurse. He lived in Manhattan before taking a job in Florida. He said he didn’t renew his Kansas nursing license because his job didn’t require the credential.

Connor was subsequently diagnosed with cancer requiring surgery, but his employer didn’t want to accommodate his absence from work. He was fired and won a wrongful termination lawsuit. He considered returning to Kansas to resume his nursing career. After contacting the Board of Nursing to renew his license, the agency put him under investigation for allegedly working in Florida without a nursing license.

“My real nightmare began,” said Connor, who eventually secured a new Kansas nursing license. “I was coerced to sign a consent agreement that labeled me with unprofessional conduct.”

The Board of Nursing placed his name in a database for nurses guilty of unprofessional conduct. His request to have Florida recognize his nursing license was rejected because he was disciplined in Kansas.

“I am working over 60 hours a week now at 7-11 to support my family,” he said. “KSBN’s draconian actions have cost me thousands of dollars in lost wages and attorney fees. The emotional toll is indescribable.”

Melissa Vaughn, a Kansas registered nurse from Kansas City, Missouri, has worked the past five years as a Hy-Vee floral designer. She shared with legislators her “unimaginable experience” with staff at the Board of Nursing. Her career in nursing began in 1996. She graduated from nursing school at University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2012.

She presented House members a detailed outline of her licensing renewal battle with the Board of Nursing that came to a head in 2013.

“I pursued my case honestly with the mindset that if KSBN is doing this to me I have no doubt they are doing it to other nurses,” she said.

In 2013, Vaughn accidently checked a box on her renewal application indicating she hadn’t completed 30 hours of mandatory continuing education. She corrected her application. At one point, the Board of Nursing accepted documentation showing she met the requirement. She later received a letter from the Board of Nursing indicating her application was being audited. Another letter said her case was referred to a disciplinary attorney “for further disposition.”

Vaughn’s alleged offense: She applied for renewal of her license on March 18, 2013, before the 30-hour continuing education credit was affirmed by the Board of Nursing on April 16, 2013. It was a confusing development, she said, because her Kansas nursing license was, at that moment, still valid and wouldn’t lapse until May 31, 2013.

The Board of Nursing offered her a diversion agreement declaring she broke state licensing regulations with a flawed application. She said she rejected the plea deal because the agreement’s “statement of facts” included false information. An assistant attorney general at the Board of Nursing threatened her with license revocation for alleged “unprofessional conduct by fraud or deceit in practicing nursing.”

The Board of Nursing issued a 15-day license suspension but later reversed the order. She paid a $250 fine for failure to exhibit a “cooperative attitude toward the disciplinary proceedings.”

More than a decade later, Vaughn said, she was grateful introduction of the House bill offered her an opportunity to advocate for reform that addressed “a sickening mix of KSBN’s schemes, incompetence, ignorance and greed.”

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.

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