A 30-year-nurse with a blemish-free career has been disqualified for six months after forging prescriptions to feed her sleeping pill addiction.
Meredith Coulson was working for Austin Health in late 2019 when she found herself caring for a seriously ill family member and helping another family member to manage long-standing mental health conditions and a history of drug addiction.
Coulson was working night shift at Austin Health at the time.
As a way to cope, she developed a mild addiction to sedatives to help her sleep.
Coupled with her addiction and a misguided plan to manage the health conditions of her two family members, Coulson stole prescription pages, forged prescriptions and obtained medications.
Those medications included Oxycodone, Diazepam and Temazepam.
She took some of those medications and gave others to the family members she was caring for.
Last week she was suspended for six months from working as a nurse by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
The tribunal heard in May 2019 while she was on shift, a colleague observed Coulson to be "visibly impaired".
It heard from Austin Health's director of nursing Coulson's reactions "were observed to be slow and uncoordinated on that occasion".
Soon after, Coulson was stood down from work.
Her script forging plan was thwarted by an eagle-eyed pharmacist who flagged the conduct and criminal charges followed.
Tribunal presiding member Anna Dea said it was important to emphasise the need for medical practitioners and hospitals to ensure prescription pads were secured.
"Had Coulson not been able to access the scripts in issue, the offending would not have been possible," Ms Dea wrote in her findings.
"She accessed the scripts and then the medications by abusing her position and the trust placed in her by her employer and as a registered health practitioner."
The Medical Board of Australia sought to cancel Coulson's registration and disqualify her for 12 months, but given the time between her offending and last week's hearing she was banned for six months.
"Engaging in criminal acts which result in 18 criminal findings of guilt is clearly a substantial departure from the standards to be expected of a registered nurse with 30 years' experience," Ms Dea wrote.
Coulson is able to apply for registration from December 27.
