STATE OF FLORIDA

DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS

DEPARTMENT OF PROFESSIONAL ) REGULATION, BOARD OF NURSING )

)

Petitioner, )

)

vs. ) CASE NO. 81-2329

)

JERRY WAYNE GILLIAM, )

)

Respondent. )

)

RECOMMENDED ORDER

Pursuant to notice, the Division of Administrative Hearings, by its duly designated Hearing Officer, James E. Bradwell, held a public hearing in this case on December 2, 1981, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

APPEARANCES

For Petitioner: William M. Furlow, Esquire

Department of Professional Regulation 130,North Monroe Street

Tallahassee, Florida 32301

For Respondent: Jerry Wayne Gilliam, pro se

4848 Northwest 24th Court, Number 107 Lauderdale Lakes, Florida 33313

ISSUES

Whether or not the Respondent, Jerry Wayne Gilliam,

engaged in unprofessional conduct, to wit: leaving his assigned nursing duties, unauthorized or without permission, in violation of Chapter 464.018(1)(f), Florida Statutes, and Rule Chapter 210-10.05(2)(e)4, Florida Administrative Code, for which disciplinary action is warranted.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Based upon my observation of the witnesses and their demeanor while testifying, the prehearing stipulation, and the entire record compiled herein, the following relevant facts are found.

   
   

2. By its Administrative Complaint filed herein dated August 12, 1981, Petitioner, Board of Nursing, seeks to take disciplinary action against Respondent, Jerry Wayne Gilliam, based on the complaint allegation that Respondent walked off his assigned duties unauthorized and failed to return, leaving narcotics and other medications as well as his patients unattended.

   
   

3. Respondent is a licensed practical nurse in the State of Florida and is the holder of license number 0619601.

4. On June 18, 1981, Respondent, through his employer, Temporary Nursing Services, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was assigned to work the 3:00 P.M. to 11:00

   P.M. shift at Hollywood Hills Nursing Home, Hollywood, Florida. Respondent, through a prehearing stipulation, admits that he walked off his assigned duties at Hollywood Hills Nursing Home, where he was assigned as a practical nurse without authorization or prior notice to the director of nursing or other person of similar authority. While Respondent admits to such conduct, he contends that his reasons for doing so were based on the fact that he encountered numerous problems which he was unable to resolve independently and that he therefore properly left his assigned duties. Respondent, by letter dated July 9, 1981, to Petitioner, recites that the problems he encountered included: (1) nurses who were leaving their duty stations when he reported to work failed to advise him that several patients needed to be restrained or needed other professional assistance; (2) his inability to locate insulin for diabetic patients during the first hour of his assigned shift; (3) the lack of concern on the part of the other nursing assistants assigned to his floor; (4) the lack of continuity in the medication records which prevented him from ascertaining with any degree of accuracy, the status of the charts and medication records of each patient; (5) the absence of a uniform unit dosage for patients; (6) the failure of the charge nurse to render any aid or assistance to him in an effort to straighten or ascertain patients' medication dosages; (7) his inability to contact the director of nursing hose phone number was left him to try to contact in the event of an emergency; (8) his inability to update doctors regarding the conditions of their patients because he did not have the pertinent information regarding their ailments; (9) his inability to advise family members of the condition of their family members who were patients because he did not know, nor was he advised of, their condition; and finally (10) his inability to make patient rounds at the beginning of his shift based on his attempt to establish priorities and locate needed medication records, etc. (Joint Exhibit No. 1)

   
   

5. Patricia Lopes, the Director of Nursing at Hollywood Hills Nursing Home, was so employed on June 18, 1981, when Respondent was assigned through the services of Temporary Nursing Services, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Patricia Lopes greeted Respondent upon his arrival at his assigned duty station at Hollywood Hills Nursing Home and gave him a brief orientation of the facility, a diagnosis of the patients and their conditions and generally showed him the charts and medication records for the patients on the floor to which he was assigned. At approximately 6:45 P.M., one of the aides searched for Respondent and was unable to locate him. A further search revealed that Respondent did not chart the medication record for any patient while he was on duty. The census at Hollywood Hills Nursing Home includes post-stroke patients as well as cardiac- arrest patients.

   
   

6. As stated, Respondent admits to having left his assigned duties without authorization from or prior notification to the director of nursing or other supervisory or management personnel. He later acknowledged that his doing so was potentially dangerous to the patients to which he was assigned to attend and now understands that he should not have left his assigned duty station without notification to a person or persons in charge. Respondent administered medication to some patients but failed to chart or otherwise make a notation thereof on the patients' records.

   CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

   
   

7. The Division of Administrative Hearings has jurisdiction over the subject matter and the parties to this action. Chapter 120.57(1), Florida Statutes.

   
   

8. The parties were duly noticed pursuant to the notice provisions of Chapter 120, Florida Statutes.

   
   

9. The authority of the Petitioner, Board of Nursing, Department of Professional Regulation, is derived from Chapter 464, Florida Statutes.

   
   

10. Competent and substantial evidence was offered to establish that the Respondent, by leaving his assigned work duties as a nurse and failing to return to his duties and leaving narcotics as well as patients unattended, amounts to conduct violative of Chapter 464.018(1)(f), Florida Statutes. Rule 210- 10.05(2)(e)4, Florida Administrative Code, authorizes the Petitioner to impose disciplinary action upon a licensee in which it is determined that said licensee is guilty of unprofessional conduct which shall include leaving a nursing assignment before properly advising appropriate personnel. Subsection (12) of the above-cited rule further defines unprofessional conduct to include acts of negligence, gross negligence, either by omission or commission. Respondent's conduct herein, which is admitted, amounts to negligent conduct which is violative of the above-stated rules and it is so concluded. Finally, Respondent's failure to chart the administration of medication to patients amounts to conduct violative of Chapter 210-10.05(2)(e) 2, Florida Administrative Code. It is so concluded.

RECOMMENDATION

Based on the foregoing Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, it is hereby

RECOMMENDED:

That the Respondent's practical nursing license number 0619601, be suspended for a period of one (1) year.

RECOMMENDED this 21st day of January, 1982, in Tallahassee, Florida.

JAMES E. BRADWELL, Hearing Officer Division of Administrative Hearings The Oakland Building

2009 Apalachee Parkway

Tallahassee, Florida 32301

(904) 488-9675

Filed with the Clerk of the Division of Administrative Hearings this 21st day of January, 1982.

COPIES FURNISHED:

William M. Furlow, Esquire Department of Professional

Regulation

130 North Monroe Street Tallahassee, Florida 32301

Jerry Wayne Gilliam 4848 N. W. 24th Court #107

Lauderdale Lakes, Florida 33313

Docket for Case No: 81-002329

Orders for Case No: 81-002329