The B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives has suspended two nurses who they say “diverted” narcotics from the facilities they work at, for “off-duty use.”
Both suspensions, in addition to other disciplinary terms, were reached via consent agreements outlined in anonymized public notices.
In one case, a nurse had “issues occurring from 2018 to the end of May 2023 related to narcotic diversion.”
“They entered their workplace while off work in order to withdraw narcotics under patient names, used the security pass of another person when their own was deactivated, and misrepresented their health in order to get a peer to insert intravenous access.
“The Registrant was diagnosed with, and admitted to, a disability with a causal relationship to the practice issues via an independent medical report and has agreed to comply with treatment recommendations.”
The nurse was suspended for one month and told not to return until abstinent and medically cleared. As well, the nurse must disclose treatment recommendations, has limits on accessing narcotics for a minimum of two years and cannot work at night or be the sole nurse on duty for one year.
In a second instance, the college suspended a nurse for one month for “diverting narcotics from the facility and from patients on some occasions for personal use while off-duty,” between December 2021 and May 2022.
The nurse, who was diagnosed with and admitted to a disability, “voluntarily disclosed diversion beyond that identified in a standard audit to a physician.
“This disclosure ensured that their medical diagnosis and subsequent prognosis and treatment recommendations matched the extent of their substance use disorder, providing a greater likelihood of treatment success.”
The nurse also faces limits on narcotics access and “a limit on working overtime, in critical care and as sole nurse for a period of time.”
The nurse also needs to provide physician reports on their treatments and undertake education in documentation, professionalism, and ethics.
In both cases, the names of the nurses were 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 notice states the terms were agreed to by the college’s inquiry committee.
