B.C.’s College of Nurses and Midwives (BCCNM) has ordered a registrant who took narcotics from their employer and then falsified records to cover up the issue to be supervised for four years.
A decision released Jan. 3 by an inquiry committee panel said the unnamed nurse arrived at a consent agreement to regular monitoring for their fitness to practice nursing and agreed to limits on their practice.
The college said the registrant was diagnosed with and admitted to a disability related to the issues involved in the case.
“If substance use disorder has impacted nursing or midwifery care, the most common BCCNM outcome is a consent agreement that includes treatment followed by a return to work with narcotics handling limitations and concurrent medical monitoring to support a stable return to fitness to practice,” the college said in a public notice.
The registrant has agreed to: disclosure of treatment recommendations to relevant employer representatives; a limit impacting access to and handling of narcotics, with concurrent medical monitoring to support the stable return to fitness to practice; and a limit on being the sole RN on duty, working overtime, and supervising students.
“Nursing and midwifery are challenging professions with many daily struggles,” the college said. “We encourage registrants struggling with health challenges, including a substance use disorder, to seek help before their health negatively impacts their professional decision-making and patient safety.”
The nurse's name was withheld so as not to release personal health information.
The college is one of 18 regulatory bodies empowered under the Health Professions Act to regulate health professions in B.C. It regulates the practice of four distinct professions: nursing, practical nursing, psychiatric nursing and midwifery.
Similar legislation in other self-regulated areas such as the legal and notary public professions also allows citizens to know about discipline issues in the public interest.
