LancasterOnline.com:News:Charge: LGH nurse stole drugs

Charge: LGH nurse stole drugs

State alleges Washington Boro woman, 39, pilfered painkillers for more than a year. Former RN’s attorney denies criminal wrongdoing.

Dec 20, 2007 12:15 EST

Lancaster

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By JANET KELLEY, Staff

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QUOTE(Daisy Lee Myers @ Dec 20 2007, 02:59 PM)

Alternative-to-discipline programs focus on rehabilitation, rather than punishment, for nurses with dependency issues.

"Pennsylvania's Professional Health Monitoring Program has two sections, the Voluntary Recovery Program and the disciplinary monitoring unit. "Nurses enrolling in the Voluntary Recovery Program enter into an agreement with the state's Board of Nursing to adhere to a treatment and rehabilitation plan and to be monitored for three years," Campbell says. Participants who adhere to the program's requirements may petition the Board of Nursing to dismiss any formal disciplinary actions, such as license suspension or termination.

"However, nurses only are eligible if they haven't diverted drugs from patients to sell or distribute, or haven't failed a similar program in another state or jurisdiction," Campbell says. "If they have, they aren't eligible for the Voluntary Recovery Program."
web link:

Nursing Spectrum- NURSES that abuse DRUGS AND PA TREATMENT PROGRAM

http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:fFJSP...m%3FAID%3D18787

That's my point. Obviously this nurse had to have been in a program or else she would have lost her license to practice. So, she does all of that...to then end up arrested? Doesn't make sense. Or what I really mean is....it's a shame. I don't think her picture and name should have been posted in the paper. Just sayin.

ihavehorns

i havehorns:.

DO WE REALLY KNOW???
if the employer REPORTED the employee to the Board of Nursing OR if the nurse mention her problem with drugs to the board.
2005-the RN told her supervisor she didn't have a drug problem AFTER abusing the narcotics for a year!

did she submit to a drug program?

it isn't mention in the article.

it should be!
"Nordsick reportedly told her supervisors that although her actions continued for more than a year, and "she admitted having a drug problem...she did not feel she had an addiction to pain medication," according to the affidavit."

Daisy Lee Myers

QUOTE(ihavehorns @ Dec 20 2007, 03:20 PM)

Horns, I too don't understand why there was a 2-year delay in charging her if she admitted taking the drugs. She said she didn't undermedicate any patients, so I don't think that diverting drugs was an issue that would put her license in jeopardy if she completed the program as required. However,.IMO, whether or not she loses her license is a totally separate matter from whether she did something illegal and should be prosecuted. The claims are she did take the drugs illegally and therefore she should be prosecuted like any other individual who took drugs illegally would be. It wouldn't seem that the laws applied to her if she wasn't charged and prosecuted. I do agree with you about her picture in the paper.

BeingReal

this may clarify why it took so long for an arrest.

"According to the Attorney General's Office, Nordsick allegedly took the medication between September and December 2005.

The Attorney General's Office was notified by hospital officials of a pain-killer problem in December 2005, but investigators said the hospital provided NO NAMES of suspected employees.

After looking into the problem for more than one year, attorney general spokesman Kevin Harley said today, investigators learned about Nordsick in March 2007.

The discrepancies in the medicine documentation were explained by providing pain medication to a patient who wasn't in pain, providing pain medication too soon as well as providing pain medication to patients when other nurses were not giving pain medication to the same patient, according to the affidavit."
LancasterOnline.com: News : Charge: LGH nurse stole drugs
http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/214006

Daisy Lee Myers

Thanks, Daisy, that does explain the delay.

BeingReal

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