A nurse has been suspended for six-months after stealing a box of paracetamol for her husband who she was caring for at the time.
Diane Staves was working at Grimsby's Diana Princess of Wales Hospital in August 2018 when she accessed the controlled drugs cupboard in the hospital whilst on leave and without permission.
The nurse was found guilty of misconduct by the Nursing and Midwifery Council at a recent hearing in relation to the incident in 2018 and has received a six-month suspension from the nursing register, GrimsbyLive reported.
She was dismissed from the Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust in October that year for theft of medication, which she admitted on a Regulatory Concerns Response Form, signed and dated May 16, 2019.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) received a referral from the Acting Head of Nursing at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust saying that Diane accessed the controlled drugs cupboard in the hospital whilst on leave and without permission.She later admitted to knowing she did not have permission to take the medication.
According to the published report from the NMC of the hearing, there was no evidence before the panel that the nurse's actions were innocent or a careless mistake.
This led to the Council deeming her fitness to practise impaired.
While no patients were put at the risk of harm due to the incident and the medication could have easily been replaced, the panel found that Diane's dishonesty breached the fundamental tenets of the nursing profession.
Diane has not provided a full statement reflecting on the event or any evidence of training or professional development, but said in her internal investigation that she was "truly sorry" for what she had done.
When discussing the penalty, the panel took into account that this was a one-off incident and that Diane was under an unprecedented amount of stress due to caring for her husband at the time.
It was decided that it would be neither proportionate nor in the public interest to take any further action.
