A NSW-BASED nurse has been disqualified from practising for 18 months after complaints relating to the misappropriation of two prescription pads and prescription fraud were proven.
The Health Care Complaints Commission took action against the nurse after a pharmacist identified issues with three prescriptions she presented.
A Civil and Administrative Tribunal heard the pharmacist contacted the doctor who had purportedly issued the scripts for verification, however, the GP confirmed that he had not provided the nurse with the prescriptions.
The Tribunal was told the nurse used the two script pads to forge eight prescriptions - six for herself and two for a relative - for diazepam, endone, duloxetine, nitrazepam and oxycodone, between 24 Feb 2019 and 15 Apr 2019.
The nurse said she was 22 at the time of the offending, and had been in the midst of planning her wedding when she discovered she was infertile.
The Tribunal heard that the nurse underwent fertility treatment, and admitted that she did not handle the situation well.
She said that she had made a number of bad decisions by taking the pads and using them for her own purposes.
The nurse acknowledged her conduct was illegal and unethical, and believed she did not deserve the right to work as a nurse.
"She was ashamed and remorseful for her conduct," Tribunal papers reported.
"She was grateful that her conduct was discovered before it escalated... she believed that if she had continued she would have been ruined."
The Tribunal heard that the nurse has not worked in a nursing role since Jun 2019, when she gained a full time position as a childcare worker, which she left in Apr 2020 due to pregnancy.
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