AN experienced mental health nurse who became close friends with a patient and was found guilty of professional misconduct has had her nurse's registration licence cancelled for six months.
Vicki Louise Wilton was working at Warners Bay Hospital's Lakeside Clinic when she started caring for a female patient, aged 32, with a complex mental health history.
The woman's diagnoses included bipolar disorder, borderline personality traits and eating disorder.
In evidence given at the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, Ms Wilton admitted that she knew and understood the woman was an inherently vulnerable person when she struck up a friendship with her.
She had 10 sessions with her as a carer, some while the woman was an inpatient at Lakeside, and some through her work with a nursing agency providing community mental health support services to patients referred to it by a Lakeside psychiatrist.
Their friendship started out with text messages from Ms Wilton's private mobile phone to the woman. They phoned or texted each other almost every day, sometimes late at night. They also met for coffee, dinner, and at at licensed venues, and sometimes spent special occasions such as birthdays together.
At one point Ms Wilton asked the patient to care for her dog, which she did, and asked her to buy her things from a pharmacy, which she also did.
In a statement to the Health Care Complaints Commission in July, 2021, the woman said that on the last night she and Ms Wilton had gone out together, a Saturday in December, 2020, they went to a club.
She said Ms Wilton consumed a few drinks and told her that she wanted her to be the beneficiary of her will.
Ms Wilton said she could not remember saying that but that if she did, she may have said it as a "throwaway line" or as a "joke".
The woman was re-admitted to Warners Bay Hospital on December 10, 2020 and discharged seven days later. The discharge summary stated: "This 33-year-old woman was admitted in crisis secondary to boundary issues between her and a new therapist."
In a statement, she said her friendship with Ms Wilton was everything she ever wanted.
" ... to mean so much to somebody else. I think about her a lot and miss her. We were very close and it has left a huge hole in my life...".
Ms Wilton said she was deeply remorseful about her behaviour and the ways in which she breached professional boundaries with the patient, and had sought insight from a psychologist.
The tribunal found that Ms Wilton's relationship with her patient was "wholly inappropriate".
"Ms Wilton was well aware that the relationship was inappropriate, aware that she was obliged to disclose professional conflicts and aware that she should have terminated the relationship appropriately, but nonetheless continued the relationship and sought to cover it up.
"Ms Wilton used her position of power over (the patient) for her own benefit and without regard for (their) clinical and therapeutic needs ...
"Not only did Ms Wilton's conduct have the potential to cause ... , it is clear that her conduct did, in fact, cause ... as (the patient) was re-admitted to Warners Bay Hospital after the relationship ended."
There had been no other complaints against Ms Wilton in her long nursing career, and she was regarded as a competent and compassionate nurse, the tribunal said.
However, the seriousness of her boundary violations and the tribunal's "inability to be satisfied that there is no risk that Ms Wilton will behave in a similar fashion again, an order cancelling her registration would publicly condemn her conduct and also serve to act as a specific and general deterrent, to uphold the standards of the nursing profession and to preserve public confidence in the profession.
