They State Allowed a Kidnapper to REMAIN A NURSE!!

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Specializes in Primary Care and ICU.

I attended a public hearing as a field trip at the Florida State board of nursing. One case - I saw was of this large, robust male LPN who has a psych disorder - bipolar i assume. He was working as a nurse and got off of his shift at night from some rehab facility, and randomly picked a woman driving her car to stalk and attack. He opened her car door when she got home, beat her up, put her in the car, drove her to his house as a kidnapping case and thank god somebody saw him and a civilian attacked the nurse to defend the woman until cops came. He had his license suspended.

At the hearing he told them he was off of his medication, and didn't mean to do it....and the board allowed him to keep his nursing license under the stipulation that he be monitored for taking his medication.

I wanted your feelings on this matter, because me personally..I was upset by the ruling. I cant see this man as my families nurse with such violent tendencies...but maybe I'm being biased.

-Teleflurry RN

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Specializes in CNA.

You are absolutely right Tele , it is a travesty he should remain liscensed under ant circumstances!:madface::nono: I would be terrified if someone capable of that was taking care of me or my loved ones!

I have one question though, why do you assume he is bipolar? I mean...Why automatically assume that is his mental illness and not one of dozenz of others which would bettter fit this violent behavior? Was there something that made you believe that might be his specific condition or are you just assuming?

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Specializes in Primary Care and ICU.
You are absolutely right Tele , it is a travesty he should remain liscensed under ant circumstances!:madface::nono: I would be terrified if someone capable of that was taking care of me or my loved ones!

I have one question though, why do you assume he is bipolar? I mean...Why automatically assume that is his mental illness and not one of dozenz of others which would bettter fit this violent behavior? Was there something that made you believe that might be his specific condition or are you just assuming?

He said he was bipolar at the board meeting, but they never quite confirmed it or probed into it out loud what other disorders he may have had to throw him into such a violent fit.

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Specializes in CNA.

Thanks for clearing that up~How ridiculous though, no wonder he got to keep his licsense...I would think an intense probe into his mental status and various conditions is exactly what they (the board)needed to do to verify how stable he could be with his medications,right? If it is not mentioned and dealt with out loud it makes me wonder how well it was handled on paper?!?!?!?

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the board allowed him to keep his nursing license under the stipulation that he be monitored for taking his medication.

Was he not in prison, or soon to go to prison, at this point?

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That's disturbing. If he went off his meds once, the likelihood of him doing it again is high, even with monitoring.

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Specializes in EMS, ER, GI, PCU/Telemetry.

that is really scary. what makes them think he would not assault or abuse one of his patients, a civilian or co-worker now that he knows he can get away with it?

one would think they would send him to get a psychiatric evaluation and then proceed with ATLEAST suspending his license for a year or something until he is in therapy with documentation of being on medication and has completed x amount of hours community service or something...

i would not want him to be anyone's nurse again. he sounds dangerous. i hope the people in the state of florida are informed about this man, and where he works if he is allowed back there. if not, myflorida.com has a great website there where you can look up all licensed health care professionals and it will usually show where they are currently working and any infractions on their license.

good grief. scary.

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Has this person been arrested and gone through the court system? Has he been found guilty of kidnapping? If not, maybe the old innocent until proven guilty is the basis for the board finding. If he has been found guilty he should serve prison time and his license should go!!

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a nurse in this area was arrested for exposure and he lost his job the next day and is not allowed to work until trial or/if charges are dropped

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Specializes in Emergency, LTC, Med/Surg.

I am going to play devils advocate here. If he were your patient, and he slipped up, wouldn't we as nurses hope for the best for him. Wouldn't we hope that once on his meds again, he would have control, would we as nurses hope that his illness were made public and known to all of the patients he took care of? I know that as a nurse I would hope for rehabilitation and control and a good outcome. If this is the first time anything like this happened then shouldn't he be granted another chance. Just because we are nurses does not make us immune to making mistakes or bad decisions. We as nurses are not here to judge, that is why there is a state board, and I am sure since they are interested in protecting the public, that they have looked into his mental illness history. One more thing, if you had AIDs of Hep C would you want all of your patients to know of your history?

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Specializes in EMS, ER, GI, PCU/Telemetry.

deleted....

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Specializes in telemetry, med-surg, home health, psych.

I don't see how we can compare this random "violent" behavior to AIDS or HEP C.....

I have so many "frequent flyer" pts. on my psych unit that do not stay on their meds, then must return for more tx. I do not believe we can blame this type of behavior on "not taking meds".......

This was an extremely violent, pre-meditated act...I don't care what dx. he comes up with....he needs to be in jail.........

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