Tribunal suspends sex call nurse

The former nurse has been suspended for 18 months. Photo / Thinkstock

A former Auckland nurse has been suspended for 18 months for professional misconduct, which included making a sexually suggestive phone call to a mentally unwell patient.

Collin Kora, now living at Waipawa in Hawkes Bay, did not attend a Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal hearing in Auckland on Tuesday.

The tribunal found him guilty on two counts relating to inappropriate text messages or phone calls to two female patients, whose names are suppressed. The evidence on a third count, relating to a female co-worker, was found not to meet the threshold for disciplinary action.

The Nursing Council, whose professional conduct committee brought the charge, suspended Mr Kora's practising certificate in February, time which will be taken off yesterday's 18-month penalty.

He must do an ethics course before returning to nursing, after which he will be supervised for 18 months.

The tribunal also recommended that the council have Mr Kora's health assessed because of evidence suggesting possible problems with diabetes, short-term memory loss, and alcohol and drug abuse.

The committee's lawyer, Matthew McClelland, said Mr Kora's clients at the Counties Manukau District Health Board's intensive community team - where he worked from May to September last year - were "all female and were high-need forensic clients with mental health issues".

Mr Kora denied allegations of inappropriate behaviour when confronted by a manager at Counties Manukau's mental health services in October last year, initially stating the patients were paranoid schizophrenics who must have misinterpreted events, Mr McClelland said.

The manager had indicated it was likely Mr Kora would have been dismissed had he not already quit.

One of the patients, whom Mr Kora had sent numerous texts, told a staff member of the Affinity non-government mental health organisation that, "Collin wants to f*** me".

The staff member, Leisa Hartland, told the tribunal that a fortnight later the woman told her, while an inpatient at Middlemore Hospital's acute mental health unit, that Mr Kora had phoned her the previous night. He had said things about himself, including that he was at home watching pornography and did not have a partner.