Nurse found guilty of professional misconduct for second time

A nurse has been found guilty of professional misconduct for the second time in three years.

A fitness-to-practise committee hearing convened at the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland headquarters on Tuesday also accepted allegations that Siobhán Bridget Kelly failed to abide by conditions set out in a previous fitness-to-practise inquiry in 2012.

Ms Kelly, a registered general and children’s nurse who was not present at the proceedings, was officially sanctioned at her first hearing three years ago for misappropriating prescriptions for painkillers at a hospital where she worked in 2009.

She was also found to have forged the signature of a medical practitioner before collecting the drugs at two pharmacies in September and October that year. The inquiry's decision was approved by the High Court president in June 2012.

Ms Kelly was also ordered to abide by five “health monitoring” conditions, including urine testing every two months for the presence of opiates, in order to maintain her position on the nursing register. Two of these conditions had to be fulfilled regardless of whether she was practising as a nurse.

No compliance

Tuesday’s six-person fitness- to-practise committee heard Ms Kelly had shown “no compliance whatsoever” in relation to the conditions and had not maintained regular contact with the board.

Solicitors for McDowell Purcell, representing the board, told the committee the organisation last received written correspondence from Ms Kelly in September 2012, in which she stated her desire to retire as a nurse due to ongoing health complaints.

In her testimony at the hearing, the board's acting director of regulation Ursula Byrne said members could not simply retire but must complete an application process to be transferred to the "inactive" nursing register, which Ms Kelly failed to do.

Following repeated failed attempts to contact Ms Kelly over the course of the next two years, solicitors eventually discovered she had breached a legislative requirement by not informing the nurses board that she had moved back to a previous residence.

Seriousness

The committee was told when solicitors made contact with her earlier this month, Ms Kelly was informed of the “seriousness” of the case and potential consequences of non-attendance, but further attempts to contact her proved unsuccessful, it was added.

After a short deliberation, chairwoman Essene Cassidy said the committee accepted the information provided by the board and its legal team “in its entirety”.

She said Ms Kelly was guilty of a “most serious falling short of standards”, and upheld allegations of professional misconduct and failure to comply with conditions from her previous sanction.