Strickland, Hearing Officer of the Division of Administrative Hearings.
For Petitioner: Jean M. Flanagan, Esquire
Gulfcoast Legal Services, Inc. 641 First Street South
St. Petersburg, Florida 33731 ISSUE
Whether the Respondent, Bonnie Jean Hutcheson, should be placed on probation, or whether her license should be suspended or revoked.
The Respondent, Bonnie Jean Hutcheson, is a licensed practical nurse, who holds License No. 19002-1. In June and July of 1978, the Respondent was employed at The Abbey Nursing Home in St. Petersburg, Florida. On July 4, 1978, the Respondent was terminated from her employment at The Abbey Nursing Home by the Director of Nursing.
Respondent Hutcheson was employed as a licensed practical nurse at North Horizon Convalorium in St. Petersburg, Florida in April, 1979.
On February 16, 1979, an Administrative Complaint was filed alleging that Respondent Hutcheson was guilty of unprofessional conduct. The Respondent requested an administrative hearing in May of 1979, and a hearing was scheduled for July 25, 1979, but was continued by Motion of the Petitioner. Thereafter,
the Administrative Complaint was amended on August 12, 1979, to add additional charges.
On June 17, 23 and 24, 1978, while employed at The Abbey, Respondent Hutcheson signed out for Dalmane, a controlled substance, for a patient, Josephine Miracky, and failed to chart the administration of same on the patient's medication record. On July 2, 1978, Respondent reported to work at The Abbey for the 3:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. shift. Alice Henderson, a registered nurse who was going off duty at 3:00 p.m., noticed the Respondent and reported to the nursing office that Respondent's speech seemed slurred, that she seemed unsteady on her feet and slow to respond, and that she had counted medications very slowly. On July 4, 1978, the Director of Nursing terminated the employment of Respondent Hutcheson for the reason that she felt the Respondent's performance was unsafe as a practitioner.
In April of 1979, while employed at North Horizon Convalarium, Respondent Hutcheson signed out for Tylenol No. 3, a narcotic and controlled substance, at an interval of one hour for a patient, Emma Jackson, when the physician's order for this medication was that it be administered no more frequently than every four (4) hours. On three (3) or four (4) occasions during the month of April, 1979, the Respondent took from the patients' medication stock three (3) or four (4) Tylenol No. 3 tablets and left the facility with them to give to her son at home.
Respondent Hutcheson did not deny the allegations in the Administrative Complaint. In defense of her actions she testified that she knew Alice Anderson, the witness for Petitioner, but that she had not worked with her and did not work with her on the same shift. (Ms. Anderson's report is contained in Paragraph 2) Respondent Hutcheson acknowledged that she knew Eris J. Frye, the Director of Nursing at The Abbey Nursing Home, and admitted that she might have made a "common error" by failing in June of 1978, to chart medication on a patient's medication record. She did not know she had been terminated as "an unsafe practitioner."
Respondent Hutcheson recalled the day of July 2, 1978, when she came to work, and she stated she had developed a back problem, having a chronic type of arthritis. She stated that she had taken a pain medication prescribed for her by her physician, Dr. Spatapora, which was a medication called Anexsia-D. Respondent stated that at that time she had just learned that her daughter, who was fifteen (15) years of age and unmarried, was pregnant, and that she in fact was exceedingly disturbed over her daughter's condition and could not sleep, and had taken the medication prescribed for her by her physician. She said she had not taken any of the medication at work, but that she was so over-whelmed by her problems she was ready to resign her position at The Abbey at the time she was terminated on July 4, 1978.
Respondent Hutcheson stated that in April of 1979, while working at North Horizon Convalarium, she took several tablets of Tylenol No. 3 from the medication supplies to give to her son, who had recently come out of the hospital after having been seriously injured in an automobile accident. She testified that her son was in a great deal of pain, that she had to leave him alone in the house, and that she used the tablets to help him get to sleep for a few nights because she could not get in touch with his physician and could not afford to take him to another physician. She said her son used the nine (9) to eleven (11) tablets only, and was not and is not addicted to drugs.
Respondent Hutcheson is not addicted to drugs.
Witnesses for the Petitioner Board stated that it was contrary to acceptable and prevailing nursing practice for the Respondent to fail to accurately chart all medications signed out by her, and that it is contrary to acceptable and prevailing nursing practice to take Tylenol No. 3 tablets from the patients' medication supplies.
Witnesses for the Respondent testified that she is a good neighbor and a hard-working, conscientious nurse, and that she is a devoted mother to her son and daughter. They stated Respondent is divorced and has the responsibility for her children.
Petitioner and Respondent submitted proposed findings of fact and recommended orders. 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
The Division of Administrative Hearings has jurisdiction of this cause and the parties thereto pursuant to Section 120.57, Florida Statutes.
Section 464.21 Disciplinary proceedings.-- provides:
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 who has been found guilty 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.
Failing to chart medications on a patient's record at any time is contrary to the acceptable and prevailing nursing practice. Distributing Tylenol No. 3, a controlled substance, to a son for whom the medication had not been prescribed, is contrary to the foregoing statute. In these respects Respondent Hutcheson violated this statute.
