STATE OF FLORIDA

DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS

FLORIDA STATE BOARD OF NURSING, )

)

Petitioner, )

)

vs. ) CASE NO. 78-2186

)

RACHEL PORTER, )

)

Respondent. )

)

RECOMMENDED ORDER

Pursuant to notice a hearing was held on May 29, 1979, in the Conference Room of Polk General Hospital in Bartow, Florida, beginning at 12:30 p.m. before Delphene C. Strickland, Hearing Officer of the Division of Administrative Hearings.

APPEARANCES

For Petitioner: Julius Finegold, Esquire

1107 Blackstone Building

233 East Bay Street Jacksonville, Florida 32202

For Respondent: Jack T. Edmund, Esquire

Post Office Box 226 Bartow, Florida 33830

ISSUE

Whether Respondent Rachel J. Porter's License No. 37341-2 should he suspended or revoked, or whether Respondent should be placed on probation or otherwise disciplined.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. An administrative complaint was filed against Respondent on or about November 2, 1978, seeking to place on probation, suspend, or revoke the license of Respondent and her right to practice as a registered nurse. Respondent requested an administrative hearing.

   
   

2. From approximately May 14, 1978, through June 1, 1978, while serving as a registered nurse at Polk General Hospital in Bartow, Florida, Respondent on several occasions falsified hospital records for the purpose of concealing the conversion of narcotics by Respondent to her own use. During said period of time Respondent on several occasions signed out for narcotics for patients and failed to properly document the disposition of same.

   
   

3. On or about May 28, 1978, Respondent signed out for Demerol (Meperidine), a controlled substance, for a patient by the name of Laura

   Williams for whom there were no physician's orders for said narcotic for that date and time.

   
   

4. On or about June 1, 1978, while on duty, Respondent injected herself with a controlled narcotic, to wit Meperidine, for which she had signed out for a patient and had failed to administer the entire amount to said patient.

   
   

5. On or about June 1, 1978, Respondent was arrested by an officer of the Polk County Sheriff's Department at Polk General Hospital and, after being advised of her rights, produced a partially filled 75 mg. tubex of Meperidine. Respondent admitted to having taken the Meperidine from hospital stock by signing it out for patients and, instead, injecting herself with it.

   
   

6. On or about October 3, 1978, in the Circuit Court in and for the Tenth Judicial Circuit, Respondent entered a plea of "no contest" in Case No. CF78- 1558 to the charges of unlawful possession of a controlled substance and unlawful possession of a device and paraphernalia with the intent of unlawfully administering a controlled substance in violation of Florida Statute Section 893.13.

   
   

7. Respondent was placed on five years probation on November 16, 1978, without adjudication of guilt. She was placed on five years' probation on each of two counts with the sentences to run concurrently. She was required as a condition of the probation to pay the court costs. The court restricted her probation prohibiting her access to certain scheduled narcotics and drugs, and prohibiting her handling of certain scheduled narcotics and drugs in the event she were again to be employed as a nurse. Respondent has not been employed since being placed on probation.

   
   

8. Respondent has a history of numerous physical maladies, some physiological and some psychosomatic. She has suffered from several operations and has headaches. During the past several years she has received various pain- killing prescriptions from various physicians and has taken these to relieve her various pains. A witness called by Respondent, Annette C. Barnes, M. D., a psychiatrist, testified that Respondent had become addicted to drugs. It was Dr. Barnes' opinion that the Respondent has progressed to the point where she is no longer actively addicted, and that if Respondent maintains her periods of therapy she can function normally without the aid of any medication other than that prescribed by her attending psychiatrist. Dr. Barnes' opinion was that it would be to the benefit of the Respondent to enter again into employment in the field of her profession, but that she should be restricted from contact with controlled narcotics.

   
   

9. Respondent submitted proposed findings of fact and memorandum of law. These instruments were considered in the writing of this order. To the extent the proposed findings of fact have not been adopted in, or are inconsistent with, factual findings in this order they have been specifically rejected as being irrelevant or not having been supported by the evidence.

   
   

   CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

   
   

10. The Division of Administrative Hearings has jurisdiction of this cause pursuant to Section 120.57, Florida Statutes.

    
    

11. Section 464.21 Disciplinary proceedings.-- provides as follows:

    1. GROUNDS FOR DISCIPLINE.--The board shall have the authority to deny a license to any applicant or discipline the holder of a license or any other person temporarily authorized by the board to practice nursing in the state whose default has been entered or who has been heard and found guilty by the board of: . . .

       (b) Unprofessional conduct, which shall include any departure from, or the failure to conform to, the minimal standards of acceptable and prevailing nursing practice, in which proceeding actual injury need not be established . . .

       (d) Engaging in the possession, sale, or distribution of controlled substances as set forth in chapter 893, for any other than legitimate purposes . . .

       
       

12. Respondent is guilty of violating the foregoing statute inasmuch as she signed out for controlled narcotics for patients and did not give the full amounts to the patients, but instead diverted part of it to her own use. Respondent is guilty of unprofessional conduct and of engaging in the possession of controlled substances for other than legitimate purposes.

RECOMMENDATION

Based upon the foregoing Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, the Hearing Officer recommends that the license of Respondent Rachel Porter be suspended for a period of time not less than one (1) year. If, upon investigation by the Petitioner Board performed no earlier than one (1) year from the date hereof, the Respondent appears to have cured herself of her addiction, it is recommended that Respondent's license be reinstated but that she be kept on probation until the end of the period for which she is on probation as a result of Case No. CF78-1558.

DONE and ORDERED this 17th day of July, 1979, in Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida.

DELPHENE C. STRICKLAND

Hearing Officer

Division of Administrative Hearings Room 101, Collins Building Tallahassee, Florida 32301

(904) 488-9675

COPIES FURNISHED:

Julius Finegold, Esquire 1107 Blackstone Building

233 East Bay Street Jacksonville, Florida 32202

Geraldine B. Johnson, R. N. Florida State Board of Nursing

111 East Coastline Drive, Suite 504 Jacksonville, Florida 32202

Jack T. Edmund, Esquire Post Office Box 226 Bartow, Florida 33830

Docket for Case No: 78-002186

Orders for Case No: 78-002186