Nurse who entered relationship with father of newborn she cared for guilty of misconduct

A nurse assigned to the care of a newborn baby began a relationship with the child's father several months after the care ended but while she was still formally in charge. Photo 123rf

A nurse who entered into a relationship with the father of a newborn she was caring for has been found guilty of professional misconduct, but her lawyer says she shouldn’t be suspended.

The nurse, who has interim name suppression, said the relationship with the married father began only after she was no longer providing care to his baby and through other social contact they had.

The case came before the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal in November last year and the tribunal decided the nurse was guilty of misconduct for blurring the lines of professional and personal boundaries.

Today the tribunal convened remotely to decide the woman’s penalty, with the lawyer for the professional conduct committee [PCC] recommending a six-month suspension, censure, supervision for 12 months, completion of a course on professional ethics and disclosure of the case to employers.

But her lawyer, Harry Waalkens, KC, said a suspension was unnecessary to protect the public and deter similar conduct, and that nurses were often dealt heftier penalties than other health practitioners such as doctors.

“Regretfully nursing, as part of the wider group of health professionals in New Zealand, has suffered with disparity in disciplinary outcomes,” Waalkens said in his submission.

He cited a case from 11 years ago where a High Court judge “acknowledged the evolution of a disparity between the penalties imposed on nurses who had entered into sexual relationships with patients or former patients and the penalties imposed on doctors for similar conduct”.

Waalkens pointed to a judge’s finding that there was “statistical support” for the submission that nurses had been treated “more severely than doctors” for this conduct.

In the case of “Dr L”, a GP who had a long-standing relationship with a mentally unwell young woman while treating her and later her family members, Waalkens said his conduct was “substantially more serious” and he was suspended for three months.

In this case, which was unique to any other case that had been before the tribunal, the nurse believed her professional relationship with the mother and child was over when she began her relationship with the husband several months later.

She said she never saw the dad when she was caring for the baby and it was only after he did some work on her home that they became involved.

Waalkens said it was not true the nurse had ignored a text message from the mother threatening to take her own life and instead she reported the text to her manager and members of the woman’s family.

He said the nurse reluctantly resigned from a job she loved and was highly competent at because of a “prolonged and dysfunctional employment investigation” during the course of which she was repeatedly told she would keep her job but ultimately told her employment would be terminated.

The employer, which also has name suppression, changed its stance following comments on social media, a complaint to the Health and Disability Commissioner and other negative publicity, Waalkens said.

“ ... this resulted in a decision to make an example of her.”

Waalkens said since then the nurse had undertaken self-education on professional boundaries, reviewed and reflected on the Nursing Council of New Zealand’s Code of Conduct and acknowledged that she should not have cared for the baby because she had too many ties to the family socially.

He added that she was now in a new job where she was helping lower socio-economic members of her community access healthcare and as a nurse, her skills were in demand with desperate nursing shortages nationwide.

“Any order interfering with [the nurse’s] ability to practise as a nurse would be highly disproportionate, harsh and excessive.”

But Matthew McClelland, for the PCC, did not accept the nurse’s conduct was “at the bottom end of the scale” which he said was inconsistent with the tribunal’s findings.

McClelland said Waalken’s submission minimised the nurse’s inappropriate behaviour and he cited several aggravating factors, including that the relationship developed when she was still formally the assigned nurse, that her responsibility to maintain appropriate boundaries was not managed professionally, the professional relationship lasted 19 months, and that not acting on the text message was a “serious lapse”.

Tribunal chairwoman Theo Baker said the tribunal would deliberate today and issue a minute on Thursday outlining its decision on penalty.

• The nurse’s professional misconduct finding was later overturned by the High Court

Natalie Akoorie is a senior reporter based in Waikato and covering crime and justice nationally. Natalie first joined the Herald in 2011 and has been a journalist in New Zealand and overseas for 28 years, more recently covering health, social issues, local government, and the regions.