STATE OF FLORIDA

DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS

DEPARTMENT OF PROFESSIONAL ) REGULATION, BOARD OF NURSING, )

)

Petitioner, )

)

vs. ) CASE NO. 80-407

)

LOUVENIA SEWELL, )

)

Respondent. )

)

RECOMMENDED ORDER

Pursuant to notice, the Division of Administrative Hearings, by its duly designated Hearing Officer, E. N. Ayers, held a public hearing in the above styled case on 22 May 1980 at Jacksonville, Florida.

APPEARANCES

For Petitioner: Jeffery B. Morris, Esquire

2400 Independent Square

Jacksonville, Florida 32202 For Respondent: was not present

By Administrative Complaint filed 13 November 1979, the Department of Professional Regulation, Board of Nursing, Petitioner, seeks to revoke, suspend or otherwise discipline the registration of Louvenia Sewell, Respondent, as a registered nurse. As grounds therefor it is alleged that on or about 17 May 1979, Respondent, while on duty as a registered nurse at University Hospital, Jacksonville, Florida, did, without just cause or appropriate order, remove tubes and catheters from patients.

By letter dated April 28, 1980 David M. Robbins, Esquire, attorney of record for Respondent, advised that he no longer represented Respondent. Copy of the Notice of Hearing dated April 24, 1980 was sent by U.S. Mail to Respondent at the same address at which she had received the Administrative Complaint and notice of an informal conference. This notice of hearing was not returned undelivered.

At the hearing even witnesses were called by Petitioner.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Louvenia Sewell is registered with the Florida Board of Nursing as a Registered Nurse and was so registered on May 17, 1979 while employed by the University Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida.

2. Notice of hearing was sent to Respondent by U.S. Mail to the address Respondent filed with the Board of Nursing.

   
   

3. On 17 May 1979 during the morning hours Ada Mims, an aide at University Hospital, entered Room 626A occupied by patient Warren Price and saw Respondent alongside the bed extracting the endotrachial tube. The subclavian tube had been removed and was lying on the patient's shoulder. Respondent was crying. When Ms. Mims said she would go get the head nurse Respondent did not reply but shortly followed Ms. Mims out and went into an adjacent room.

   
   

4. Warren Price had severe congestive heart failure and had been under intensive care for the six days prior to May 17, 1979. On May 17 he was comatose. No doctor's orders had been issued to remove either the endotrachial tube or the subclavian line.

   
   

5. When the floor supervisor was notified by Mims that Respondent had removed catheter and tubes she called the doctor and head nurse. The Assistant Director of Nurses was with the head nurse when the call was received from the supervisor and both of them proceeded to the sixth floor. Upon arrival they found Respondent in an adjoining room staring vacantly out of the window.

   
   

6. Respondent was led off the floor and when they arrived in the Assistant Director of Nurses office, Respondent was asked why she had removed the tubes. Her reply was to the effect that the patients were not being properly treated and nurses knew more about caring for patients than did the doctors.

   
   

7. When the doctor arrived at Price's room he found the patient's condition stable and he replaced the endotrachial tube. The subclavian tube was not immediately reinserted.

   
   

8. Removal of endotracheal or subclavian tubes is done only by a doctor or person specially trained to perform this task. Removal of any tube without doctor's orders, with few exceptions not here present, constitutes conduct below the minimum standard for nurses.

   
   

   CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

   
   

9. The Division of Administrative Hearings has jurisdiction over the parties and the subject matter of these proceedings.

   
   

10. Section 464.018, Florida Statutes, provides that among the grounds for disciplinary action against licensed nurses is included:

    
    

    (1)(f) Unprofessional conduct, which shall include, but not be limited to, why departure from, or the failure to conform to the minimal standards of acceptable and prevailing nursing practice, in which

    case actual injury need not be established.

    
    

11. Removing tubes from patients without doctors orders to do so constitutes unprofessional conduct. It is therefore

RECOMMENDED that the license of Louvenia Sewell, R.N., be suspended for one year.

K. N. AYERS, Hearing Officer Division of Administrative Hearings Room 101, Collins Building Tallahassee, Florida 32301

(904) 488-9675

COPIES FURNISHED:

Jeffery B. Morris, Esquire Sinoff & Alford

2400 Independent Square

Jacksonville, Florida 32202

Ms. Louvenia Sewell

2721 Sunny Acres Drive, North Jacksonville, Florida 32209

Ms. Nancy Kelley Wittenberg Secretary, Department of

Professional Regulation The Oakland Building 2009 Apalachee Parkway

Tallahassee, Florida 32301

Geraldine B. Johnson, R.N. Investigation and Licensing

Coordinator

State of Florida, Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation

Division of Professions Board of Nursing

111 Coastline Drive, East Jacksonville, Florida 32202

================================================================= AGENCY FINAL ORDER

=================================================================

STATE OF FLORIDA

DEPARTMENT OF PROFESSIONAL REGULATION BOARD OF NURSING

In Re: Louvenia Sewell, R.N. No. 79-BS-11 License No. 73299-2 CASE NO. 80-407

/

ORDER

This cause came on to be heard before the Florida Board of Nursing on August 29, 1980, in Pensacola, Florida, for the purpose of determining whether disciplinary action should be taken against the license of the licensee pursuant to Sec. 464.018 (1)(f), F.S. At the licensee's election, a hearing was held by a hearing officer of the Division of Administrative Hearings, in accordance with Sec. 120.57(1), F.S. A Recommended Order has been rendered for the Board's consideration.

The Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law contained in the Recommended Order are adopted by the Board as its on and are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. On review of the complete record, it is determined by the Board that the Recommended Penalty of the Hearing Officer is not sufficient to protect the public health, safety, and welfare in light of the gravity of the licensee's conduct. Accordingly, it is hereby ORDERED and ADJUDGED that the license of the licensee be suspended for a period of one (1) year from the date hereof. At the end of the year suspension, the licensee shall be placed on probation for a period of two (2) years during which time the licensee shall furnish the Board with any changes of address or of employment and must assure that her employer furnishes quarterly reports to the Board regarding her employment: It is specifically provided, however, that the period of suspension shall not terminate nor the period of probation commence, until after the licensee appears personally before the Board with evidence of having received a psychiatric evaluation and any other evidence sufficient to demonstrate a present fitness and capability to safely engage in the practice of nursing in this state. If at, the end of the one year suspension period, the licensee has not appeared before the Board in accordance with this order, the suspension will continue indefinitely until such time as she complies and Probation will not commence until such time.

By order of the Florida Board of Nursing, this 15th day of September, 1980.

Mary E. Henry, Chairman Florida Board of Nursing

cc: Louvenia Sewell

2721 Sunny Acres Drive N. Jacksonville, Florida 32209

Docket for Case No: 80-000407

Orders for Case No: 80-000407