IrishMedicalNews

Nurse struck off for abusing drugs

Written by Lloyd Mudiwa Monday, 01 February 2010 16:52

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An Bord Altranais has erased from its register a nurse who was in charge of a nursing home and who used stolen prescriptions to acquire large amounts of controlled opioid, narcotic and hypnotic drugs on numerous occasions for her own consumption.

The Fitness to Practice (FTP) Committee of the Bord found her guilty of professional misconduct by reason of a physical or mental disability, arising from the abuse of or dependence on drugs.

Using forged prescriptions stolen from two GPs, the nurse obtained strong doses of the drugs, including Morphine Sulphate (MST), Oxynorm, Pethidine and Zimovane from the dispensary in the nursing home she worked purporting they were for different patients.

The nurse was also found guilty of altering a patient’s analgesia regime by omitting 90 mgs MST and replacing it with intermittent doses of Severodol injections of Morphine and Oromorph, contrary to good nursing practice and principles of pain management.

In the course of her employment, she also recorded large quantities of controlled drugs as having been returned to the pharmacist when she knew this was not the case, the FTP Committee found.

In addition to procuring the signature of a nursing colleague purporting to witness the return of the said controlled drugs to the pharmacy, she also failed to keep adequate or complete records available for inspection relating to the controlled drugs.
The nurse was also found with quantities of needles, syringes, ampoules or morphine and MST in her room.

The FTP Committee said the nurse stole the prescription pads on unknown dates and presented them on five different occasions in a period ranging from December 3, 2006 to May 22, 2007 at a pharmacy purporting they were for patients in the nursing home.

For instance, on the second of three occasions in December alone, the nurse received 90 caps of Oxynorm 10mgsTID, another 90 caps of at 20mgsTID, and 120 Solpadol 2 tablets, as well as one tablet nocte of Zimovane 7.5mgs.
In May 2007, she got 60 tablets of MST 60mgs, and 90 caps of Oxynorm 20 mgs, a similar amount of Oxynorm 10mgs, and 60 Zimovane 7.5mgs.