A panel of the Inquiry Committee approved a Consent Order Proposal in which the Registrant admitted that between December 8, 2017, and January 5, 2018, he suffered from an addiction to drugs that impaired his ability to practise and that he committed professional misconduct by diverting narcotics, obtaining narcotics contrary to the terms of a "Return to Work Agreement" precluding the handling of narcotics, deceiving physicians and staff on multiple occasions to obtain narcotics by falsely describing patient symptoms, creating false and misleading records and engaging in nursing practice while under the influence of narcotics.
The Inquiry Committee ordered that the Registrant be suspended for five (5) months from October 1, 2019 to February 29, 2020, complete a remedial course in ethics and be subject to limits and conditions upon his practise, in particular, that
- upon his return to nursing practise in any setting where narcotics, controlled substances and hypnotics (herein "Drugs Subject to Limits ") are used, the Registrant will be prohibited from accessing, administering, disposing or wasting Drugs Subject to Limits for one year of full-time nursing (1800 nursing hours);
- thereafter, for an additional period of one year of full-time nursing (1800 nursing hours) he may access, administer, dispose or waste Drugs Subject to Limits
only under specified supervision terms;
- he is limited from being in the role of Nurse in Charge, or acting as Sole RN, or taking on students and preceptoring staff while subject to restrictions with regard to Drugs Subject to Limits.
- he must comply with medical monitoring throughout the period described above and for an additional three years of full-time nursing (5400 hours of nursing practice);
- disclosure of the Order and related materials will be made to employer representatives and the Registrant's medical treatment providers;
- the Order remains in place until 1800 practice hours following fulfillment of all limits and conditions.
The reasons for the Inquiry Committee's acceptance of the Proposal and issuance of the Order are:
- The Registrant diverted and used narcotics while engaged in nursing practice, contrary to the terms of a "Return to Work Agreement", on repeated occasions, by deceiving physicians and staff at the hospital where he was employed. When his substance use was detected, he admitted that he suffered from a substance use disorder, withdrew from practice and underwent residential treatment. The Registrant did not admit the impact or risk of his behaviour upon his patients until mid - 2019.
- The Registrant has been successfully engaged in post-treatment follow up and monitoring since mid-2018.
- Independent medical assessments have identified the Registrant as fit to practice nursing subject to limits and conditions.
The name of the Registrant has been withheld in accordance with section 39.3(4)(a) of the
Health Professions Act for the purposes of not identifying the personal health information of the Registrant respecting the condition. The Inquiry Committee is satisfied that the Order will protect the public.