Nurse still to practice after sex with patient

A male nurse who has admitted having sex with a client suffering from mental illness can continue practising, a medical tribunal has ruled.

Paul Rosie, 49, of Dunedin, admitted having a sexual relationship with a female patient starting in November 1995 at an acute mental health unit where he was working.

His relationship with the client, which finished in 1996, went unreported until October 2008, when a nurse made a complaint on the women's behalf.

The woman only made the relationship known after a suicide attempt in April 2008. She told a nurse the relationship had been having a negative impact on her mental health.

Before this she had discussed the relationship only with family members.

The New Zealand Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal, which heard the case, ruled Mr Rosie would not be stripped of his nursing registration in part because they considered a repeat of the incident unlikely.

At the time of the relationship, the 22-year-old woman had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and had made repeated suicide threats before her admission to the unit where Mr Rosie, then 33, worked.

The sexual relationship began after Mr Rosie was asked to accompany the patient for an interview at a polytechnic.

After the interview he took her back to his place, where they had sex, after which he took the women back to the unit.

After the initial incident, Mr Rosie sent the patient a love letter and asked her to "eat" the letter or otherwise destroy it once she had read it. The letter was given to the tribunal as evidence.

After the woman was discharged from the mental health unit, the relationship continued, and the pair lived together for about a week after Mr Rosie had stopped working for the unit in 1996.

The relationship stopped only after the former patient wrote to Mr Rosie telling him that she no longer wanted to see him.

Following the complaint, Mr Rosie immediately admitted his guilt and resigned from Dunedin Hospital, as well as from a tutoring position at Otago Polytechnic.

The tribunal took these actions, as well as Mr Rosie's remorse, into account when deciding not to de-register him.

The tribunal instead suspended Mr Rosie from practice for three months, fined him $500 and ordered him to undertake supervision for 18 months when he resumed practising.

They also ruled that he pay costs of up to $1700 dollars and ordered him to take a course in professional ethics.

Mr Rosie wants to resume being a nurse in Dunedin, where he has family.

- NZPA