A Picton nurse has been banned from healthcare after she used a patient's credit card to buy herself goods and "breached professional boundaries" by maintaining a personal relationship with another patient.
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The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal heard several complaints from the Health Care Complaints Commission about Allison Maree Black, an endorsed enrolled nurse, related to her conduct regarding a Picton patient with quadriplegia and a Bowral patient suffering from chronic pain, alcoholism and alcohol neuropathy.
Black, then 32, was working for Tahmoor-based ParaMedical Health and providing in-home care to the two men at the time.
In mid-2021, Black was fined $1200 and convicted of three counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception after using the latter patient's credit card to make online purchases from Woolworths, Petbarn and Exotica Athletica in October 2020.
The HCCC said Black also used the credit card to pay the patient's utility bills on her personal phone, a task outside her remit.
Black later lied to her employer and the Nursing and Midwifery Council of NSW, the HCCC said, about her use of the credit card.
Meanwhile Black also visited the Picton patient's home outside her rostered hours, the watchdog said, which breached professional boundaries.
Black told the Nursing and Midwifery Council that she did not have a sexual relationship with the man but was playing the game Magic with him, because it was a shared interest.
The HCCC said Black had "engaged in improper or unethical conduct" and the violation was especially serious given the patient was vulnerable and Black's conduct risked disturbing the therapeutic relationship between the pair.
The watchdog also said that Black failed to produce information to the HCCC as it investigated a complaint against her.
NCAT heard that the complaints represented a "significant departure" from the standards expected of a nurse.
"The HCCC submits that, in itself, stealing from a patient under the respondent's care simply is abhorrent behaviour and should easily fall within the threshold of professional misconduct," the watchdog said.
Black did not appear at the hearing.
NCAT found Black guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct and professional misconduct.
The tribunal said her "flagrant disregard for her professional and ethical obligations as a nurse" posed a serious risk to the public.
Black's nursing registration has been cancelled and she cannot apply for a review for two years.
She is also banned from providing any health services for two years and must pay the HCCC's costs.
Her employment with ParaMedical Health was terminated in January 2021.
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Natalie Croxon
Reporter at the Illawarra Mercury, mostly covering social affairs. Previously of the Bendigo Advertiser, Northern Daily Leader and Quirindi Advocate. Our Watch award winner.
Reporter at the Illawarra Mercury, mostly covering social affairs. Previously of the Bendigo Advertiser, Northern Daily Leader and Quirindi Advocate. Our Watch award winner.
