The Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal has censured and suspended a nurse for misconduct.

The Tribunal found that the nurse failed to maintain professional boundaries with a patient in that he sold and listed items on Trade Me belonging to the patient without express permission.  The nurse was also charged with failing to account for the money received from the sale of those goods and with accepting gifts from a patient who had been under his care.

The Tribunal decided that it did not need to cancel the nurse’s registration because the offences resulted from muddlement rather than any dishonest attempt to steal the patient’s property.  The patient was suffering from the effects of hoarding and the nurse was attempting to help the patient with that issue.  The nurse should not have got himself into that position with a patient as he thereby crossed professional boundaries.

Alan Knowsley

Medical Lawyer
Wellington