From the Chair and Chief Executive
We would like to begin by acknowledging the nurses and
other regulated health professionals in Kaikōura and surrounds who, despite being
personally affected by the 14 November earthquake, have given their all to assist their
communities through this difficult time. Many nurses were working at the time of the
earthquake and had to put aside their own fears to carry on for their patients. The
stories we hear of your bravery and unselfish acts make us proud to be the nursing
regulator.
The Nursing Council offices were closed for two weeks as we waited for an engineer’s report
on our building, so please bear with us as we clear the backlog of work. Some services have
been disrupted by mail that is still held up in the system and offsite files being unable to be
accessed at this time.
In early November the Nursing Council had the opportunity to attend the South Pacific
Nurses Forum in Honiara in the Solomon Islands. It was a privilege to participate in this event
and heartening to meet such strong, brave and professional nursing leaders from the Pacific.
The relationship forged with this group of nursing leaders is imperative to our understanding
of the Pacific nursing workforce and contexts of care. Many nurses in this region provide care
in villages; they work with people across the life span and their care is person centred and
holistic rather than disease focused.
As the year draws to a close, we extend our heartfelt appreciation to all nurses for the work
you do.
We wish you a safe holiday season, a restful break for those of you fortunate enough to have
leave at this time, and to those working over the holidays, a huge thank you!
With very best wishes
Catherine Byrne and Carolyn Reed
Breaches of patients’ health information
privacy may lead to cancellation of
registration
The Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal has warned that breaches of
patients’ health information privacy may result in the cancellation of a
nurse’s registration.
The Tribunal’s warning comes against a backdrop of recent disciplinary
cases in New Zealand where nurses have inappropriately accessed patient
records, and increasing concern globally about patient privacy and
confidentiality.
READ MORE
Council’s 2016 Annual Report published
The Council’s Annual Report can now be read online.
Carole Roscoe one of the first six registered
nurses to get prescribing rights
Applications opened for registered nurses to apply to become designated
prescribers on 1 October, and Carole Roscoe had her application in right
away. By November she was writing prescriptions for patients and feeling
enthusiastic about her new role.
Carole works at a satellite clinic of a large Auckland medical practice with
20,000 patients on its books. It is a sole-charge position working alongside
one or two doctors. Carole manages the walk-in (no booking) patients with
common and long-term conditions and those coming for repeat
medications and chronic condition management. She helps the practice
ensure these people can access the care they need.
What’s changed for everyone in the past month is that when a patient
needs a prescription for a common or long-term condition, Carole can write
it without their having to wait for a doctor. Patients are really appreciating
the convenience of that, she says.
READ MORE
Changes to nurse practitioner scope of
practice and education standards
The Council is planning to make changes in March next year to broaden
the nurse practitioner scope of practice and remove the restriction that
nurse practitioners work only in specific areas of practice.
The changes to the scope, which follow extensive consultation, are the first
to be made since the nurse practitioner role was established in 2001. As
advanced clinicians, nurse practitioners will be expected to self-regulate
and practise within their areas of competence and experience.
These changes will be accompanied by changes to education programme
standards for Master’s degrees leading to registration as a nurse
practitioner. This will be followed by a review of the accrediting and
monitoring policies for tertiary education institutions delivering these
qualifications.
READ MORE
Nursing demographics visualised in online
‘atlas’
The Council has created a new online tool to make demographic data
about nurses and nursing more graphic, accessible and interactive.
READ MORE
HPDT recent cases
Failure to maintain professional boundaries
with vulnerable young men
The Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal imposed a six-month
suspension, censure and a $68,000 costs order on a registered nurse who
was found guilty of a range of charges relating to a failure to set and
maintain professional boundaries and a failure to provide safe and
competent care to patients.
Hamilton nurse Nicholas Walker faced a range of charges relating to his
care for at-risk young men. Another charge alleging an inappropriate
relationship and/or sexual acts with a patient was not proven.
In its judgment the Tribunal highlighted that it is a nurse’s responsibility to
“maintain the boundaries and help patients and colleagues maintain theirs.
Professional boundaries exist only to meet the needs of the patients”.
READ MORE
Taking narcotics from work leads to deregistration
A former Auckland nurse who took the controlled drug OxyNorm from an
automated dispensing cabinet has been found guilty of serious misconduct
and had her registration cancelled. Crystal Schlee was also censured and
ordered to pay half the costs of the hearing.
The Tribunal said, “The misappropriation of drugs by any nurse is a very
serious dereliction of his or her professional responsibility. Quite apart from
the fact that it involves dishonesty, it has the potential to undermine the
integrity of the hospital’s records and presents … very serious dangers for
patients.”
READ MORE
Persistent dishonesty motivated by selfinterest
An Auckland registered nurse who acted dishonestly on multiple occasions
for a lengthy period of time has been censured and had her registration
cancelled. The Tribunal found that most of the instances of Sona Thampy’s
dishonesty were driven by self-interest and involved repeated breaches of
trust in her relations with her employers and potential employers.
Before the hearing Ms Thampy formally admitted that her behaviour
amounted to professional misconduct and that she deserved to be
punished. The Tribunal called her conduct “simply unacceptable on any
level for a nurse”.
READ MORE
Nurse turned massage therapist suspended
for indecent assault
A registered, but non-practising, enrolled nurse has been suspended
following conviction in the Auckland District Court for indecent assault.
The offence occurred when the nurse was working as a massage therapist.
The Tribunal found that while Garth Philip Golding’s conduct occurred
outside a clinical context, it reflected adversely on his fitness to practise as
a nurse as it was a serious offence “involving a gross breach of trust”. He
was censured, he had his registration suspended for six months, and
conditions were imposed on his future practice.
READ MORE
“Mindless curiosity” brings suspension and
shame
A former Palmerston North nurse who repeatedly accessed the electronic
records of patients and colleagues when she was not entitled to do so has
been censured, suspended from practice for four months and had
conditions imposed on any resumption of her practice in New Zealand.
Balvinder Toor couldn’t offer the Tribunal any explanation or specific
reason for accessing 34 patient records on 173 occasions. Her counsel
said it had been done out of “naïve and mindless curiosity”.
The Tribunal heard that the snooping had led to the loss of her job, brought
shame on herself and her family and ruined the chance of a better life in
New Zealand.
READ MORE
Drug convictions and false declarations to the
Nursing Council
New Plymouth nurse James Middlebrook has had his registration cancelled
following criminal convictions in the United States and New Zealand for
drug offences. In what the Tribunal found to be an “alarming level of
dishonesty” he was also found guilty of professional misconduct after lying
in applications for a Nursing Re-Connect programme and an annual
practising certificate.
READ MORE
Ongoing inappropriate access to patient
records
A registered nurse who inappropriately accessed the electronic clinical
records of 64 people, including work colleagues and members of their
families, has been suspended for 18 months, censured for serious
misconduct and had conditions imposed on her should she ever return to
nursing.
Having assessed suitable penalties for the offending, the Tribunal said its
decision was made to be consistent with earlier decisions in similar cases,
but it warned “the principle of consistency is not intended to lock decisionmakers into an approach for all time”.
While no cases of this sort have resulted in the cancellation of a
practitioner’s registration, the Tribunal said it should not necessarily be
assumed that this will remain the position.
The names of the nurse and her current and former employers were
suppressed.
READ MORE
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Level 5, 22 Willeston Street
Wellington, New Zealand