KEY POINTS:
A nurse who worked for seven years without registration, then stole two cheques from a pensioner she was caring for, has been struck off the nurses register.
Karen Fogarty, of Oamaru, was also ordered to pay $2500 in costs, after pleading guilty to two charges brought by the Professional Conduct Committee.
The committee found Fogarty had been employed as a nurse at Oamaru Hospital between 1999 and 2006, when she did not hold an annual practising certificate.
Her last certificate had expired in 1991. She deferred requests to produce her certificate and was only caught out when the hospital implemented a new process for checking nurses' registrations in 2006.
Fogarty resigned from the hospital after being exposed and later that year began work as a caregiver at a rest home in Oamaru.
In October 2006, she took two cheques from a resident's cheque book and made one out for $1700, and one for $755.50. The first one was declined as it exceeded the balance in the account but the second one was paid into Fogarty's bank account.
In March 2007, Fogarty was convicted in Oamaru District Court of two counts of forging a document and fined $500.
A decision released today by the New Zealand Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal found there was "no doubt" the conviction reflected adversely on Fogarty's fitness to work as a nurse.
There was "obviously" an abuse of trust; the patient was elderly and vulnerable; and other staff could have been implicated by her actions.
The tribunal said Fogarty's actions in working without registration were "particularly serious", and she could have easily avoided the situation by contacting the Nursing Council when she began work.
Her defence submitted Ms Fogarty had forged the cheques at a time when her family was under "extreme financial pressure".
She was frank and co-operative when spoken to by police.
The tribunal found it had no choice but to deregister Fogarty. It also ordered she pay $1250 in costs to the tribunal and the same amount to the Professional Conduct Committee.
- NZPA
