Latest news with #DivisionofPublicHealth
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Nebraska says Iowa-licensed nurse is a ‘serious risk to public safety'
(Photo illustration by Iowa Capital Dispatch; background photo by JGI/) Six months after the State of Nebraska revoked a nurse's ability to practice there for posing a 'significant risk to public safety,' Iowa's Board of Nursing has agreed to let the woman continue practicing in this state. Iowa Board of Nursing records indicate Brandy Wicks, a registered nurse from Treynor, was working at an unspecified acute care hospital in 2023 when she admitted to pulling controlled and non-controlled medications from the electronic medication dispensing machine and placing the drugs in drawers in patient rooms for administration at a later time. The board also alleged Wicks pulled a dose of oxycodone out of the medication dispensing machine and documented administering the drug to a patient who later said they never received it. The board charged Wicks with misappropriating or attempting to misappropriate medications, failing to properly document or perform the disposal of medications, and failing to properly safeguard or secure medications. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX To resolve the case, Wicks recently agreed to a settlement with the board that will allow her to keep her Iowa license, although it we be placed on probationary status for two years. Records from Nebraska's Division of Public Health show that Wicks' ability to practice nursing in that state was revoked in October 2024. The division alleged Wicks was working for a Council Bluffs hospice agency, St. Croix Hospice, when a patient's spouse noticed the patient's morphine pills were missing after Wicks had visited. After the spouse inquired about the missing drugs, Wicks allegedly went back to the patient's home and returned the drugs, saying they must have fallen off a table unnoticed into her bag. Eight pills were missing from the patient's supply after Wicks returned them, according to the division. In 2023, the division alleges, Wicks was working with patients at Nebraska Medicine's trauma center when she charted that she had given a patient Oxycodone, which the patient later denied receiving. A subsequent audit allegedly revealed that over 15 days, there were 52 discrepancies in medication records involving 17 patients cared for by Wicks. According to division records, Wicks was fired from Nebraska Medicine and later failed to appear for a hearing on licensing charges. A hearing officer, Robert E. Harkins, revoked Wicks' ability to practice in Nebraska, stating that her actions were 'serious and constitute a significant risk to public safety.' The decision was affirmed by the chief medical officer of Nebraska's Division of Public Health. Wicks told the Iowa Capital Dispatch she didn't feel the Nebraska division fairly characterized her actions at the trauma center. 'They made it out to sound, like, almost like I was taking the medications — which I was not,' she said. 'That was not the case.' As for the home-hospice client's missing morphine, Wicks said, 'I believe that was a set-up. I think the family took the medication and blamed it on me. I have never taken medications from a patient, ever.' Wicks said she's currently dealing with some personal issues, but plans to resume working as a nurse soon, possibly at a nursing home in the western Iowa town of Oakland. Court records indicate Wicks is currently facing a charge of child endangerment, which, after nine continuances, is scheduled for trial on May 27. A related charge of domestic abuse assault was dismissed and a related charge of violating a no-contact order is currently 'on hold,' according to court records, pending the resolution of the child endangerment case. Earlier this year, the Iowa Board of Nursing allowed another nurse to keep her licenses after her privileges had been revoked in Nebraska. In that case, the Iowa board charged Kristine Brammer of Clearfield in 2024 with misappropriating medications or property, having her license to practice nursing revoked or suspended by another authority, and unauthorized possession or use of a controlled substance. The board alleged that while employed as a nurse at an unspecified care facility in May 2023, Brammer failed to complete the required medication counts and that narcotic medications were later found to be missing. While employed at a different care facility in June 2023, Brammer allegedly documented the administration of narcotic pain medications to patients who later denied receiving them. On Aug. 30, 2023, the State of Nebraska revoked Brammer's ability to practice there. The Nebraska records indicate that in 2022, she was fired or lost her privileges while working at two separate health care facilities and then failed to report those matters to the state. In January 2025, the Iowa Board of Nursing resolved its 2024 case against Brammer by issuing her a warning and advising her that if she failed to continue her participation in the Iowa Practitioner Health Program, she may be subject to further discipline. Other nurses recently sanctioned by the Iowa Board of Nursing include: — Judith Gonzales, an advanced registered nurse practitioner who works in the Des Moines area and is certified as a psychiatric mental health nurse. Gonzales was charged by the Iowa Board of Nursing with engaging in behavior which constitutes unethical conduct or practice harmful or detrimental to the public. She was also charged with demonstrating professional incompetence by failing to meet state standards related to controlled substances, and committing an act which causes physical, emotional or financial injury to the patient or client. Recently, the board resolved the case with a settlement agreement with Gonzales. In that agreement, the board says it charged Gonzales with professional boundary violations; prescribing or administering drugs in an unsafe manner by failing to accurately document the action and assess the patient; prescribing or administering drugs to individuals who weren't patients or who were outside her area of specialty; and committing an act that caused physical, emotional, or financial harm to a patient. The settlement agreement makes no mention of the charge of professional incompetence. According to the agreement, Gonzales' employer, who is not named by the board, received patient complaints that Gonzales was not maintaining proper physical or emotional boundaries with her clients and was oversharing her personal matters in their sessions. Further investigation subsequently revealed Gonzales had not adequately documented her patient sessions or her prescribing of pharmaceuticals, the board alleges. The board has placed Gonzales' license on probation for two years, during which time she must complete three separate six-hour courses on professional boundaries, recordkeeping, and prescribing practices. — Emma Fedler, a licensed practical nurse from Adel. Board records give conflicting accounts as to when Fedler was first issued an LPN license, with some documents indicating 2013 and some stating 2023. In 2023, Fedler's license was placed on 12 months of probation after the board charged her with an excessive use of alcohol that might impair her ability to practice nursing. That charge was tied to a criminal conviction for second-offense drunken driving, according to the board. On April 30, 2024, the board alleges, it received information that Fedler stole her co-worker's prescribed Adderall and was fired from her place of employment, which the board has not named. The board subsequently charged Fedler with engaging in behavior that is contradictory to professional decorum, and being involved in the unauthorized possession or use of a controlled substance. To settle the case, Fedler has agreed to submit to a multidisciplinary fitness for duty assessment that includes a substance abuse evaluation. Her license will again be placed on probation, this time for two years, and she will be required to submit to chemical screening. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Vaccination proved an effective safeguard for kids during Alaska's pertussis spike, report says
A doctor gives a 5-month-old boy an injection. The recommended childhood suite of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccinations proved successful at protecting Alaska children during the state's recent pertussis outbreak, state officials report. (Getty Images) Vaccinations successfully guarded Alaska children from pertussis, a respiratory disease also known as whooping cough, during the state's recent spike in cases of the disease, a new state report says. The full course of vaccination was about 93% effective in preventing the disease among young children during last years' dramatic increase in cases, according to a bulletin released by the Alaska Division of Public Health's epidemiology section. Children who were partially vaccinated had about an 85% protection rate, according to the bulletin. In contrast, unvaccinated children were more than 13 times as likely as vaccinated children to get the disease during Alaska's outbreak, said the bulletin, which reviewed laboratory-confirmed pertussis cases among children between May and November of last year. For young children, the pertussis vaccine is delivered in a package with vaccines for diphtheria and tetanus. State and federal health officials recommend four doses of that triple vaccine, known as DTaP, by the time children are 18 months old, with a fifth dose as a booster at ages 4 to 6 Beyond those years, it is recommended that older children and adults get periodic vaccinations against the three diseases, though in a different formulation known as Tdap. Pertussis is a bacterial disease that can result in pneumonia. The highest risks are among the youngest patients. For them, 'that bacterial infection can move quickly,' said Dr. Liz Ohlsen, a staff physician with the state Division of Public Health who co-authored the bulletin. Most at risk are infants whose immune systems are undeveloped and who might be too young to have been vaccinated. Deaths from pertussis are rare, but they usually occur among infants. The impacts to babies can seem sudden, Ohlsen said. 'Not all infants will have symptoms that are obvious before they start to develop severe symptoms like difficulty breathing,' she said. That is why state health officials urge expectant mothers to get the pertussis vaccine, she said. 'Making sure that everyone gets the vaccine booster during pregnancy is really key for making sure that babies have that protection in the first two months of life,' she said. Beyond then, the first dose for infants is recommended at two months. Some vaccinated children did get pertussis during Alaska's recent outbreak, the epidemiology section bulletin showed. The analysis considered only whether children tested positive or negative for the disease, not how severe the cases were, Ohlsen said. Aside from preventing the disease, vaccination 'also limits and helps protect against severe illness even if someone does get that breakthrough infection,' she said. There were more confirmed cases of pertussis in Alaska last year than in all the years from 2016 to 2023 combined, according to state officials. However, the recent Alaska outbreak peaked in September, and case numbers have declined substantially since then, according to state data. Alaska has one of the lowest childhood vaccination rates in the country. According to the State Health Access Data Assistance Center, a program at the University of Minnesota, Alaska in 2021 ranked second-to-last in overall childhood vaccination rates, after West Virginia. For DTaP vaccinations specifically, 65% of Alaska children 3 and younger had received their recommended suite of four DTaP vaccinations doses as of mid-2024, according to the Alaska Division of Public Health. That compares to a national average of about 87% as of 2021, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ohlsen said that vaccination against pertussis is also important for older children and adults. 'While pertussis is not as dangerous for older children and adults as it is for infants. It can be very unpleasant, I've certainly seen patients this season that were coughing for weeks. And it was very disruptive for them,' she said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
