The state Board of Examiners for Nursing today disciplined five nurses for misconduct, including four whose cases involved drugs or alcohol.
After a hearing today, the board revoked the license of Danielle Dragon, a licensed practical nurse from Bristol, who was accused of crushing a pill that she said was Oxycodone but which was tested and found to be Tylenol.
In April, the board had placed her license on probation for one year, and earlier this month, it had suspended her license while she awaited the hearing because, records show, she has failed to submit to drug tests.
Dragon did not attend the hearing, so the board deemed that she had admitted to the charges against her.
The board voted to suspend the license of Cherish Ostrosky, a registered nurse from Oxford, who was arrested during a traffic stop in Monroe May 19, record show. She told the police that she had used crack cocaine this year, state records show.
She was found in possession of marijuana, Suboxone in an over-the-counter pill bottle, cocaine paraphernalia and synthetic urine, the summary of charges against her said. Suboxone is used to treat people addicted to painkillers.
Concluding that her practice as a nurse presents a “clear and immediate danger” to the public, the board suspended her license pending a full hearing, which is set for Sept. 21.
The board also suspended the license of Megan Surprenant, an LPN from the Taftville section of Norwich, after concluding she, too, posed a clear and immediate danger to the public.
State records show that between December 2015 and March 2016, Surprenant failed to document the administration of two painkillers – Oxycodone and Tramadol – and an anti-anxiety drug, Lorazepam, to patients while working as a nurse at Orchard Grove Specialty Care Center in Uncasville. State Department of Public Health officials recommended the suspension, saying they have not been able to reach her.
The board also said Michelle Murphy, an RN from Longmeadow, Massachusetts, posed a danger to the public and suspended her license.
Her license was placed on probation in April for two years based on findings that she took the painkillers fentanyl and Dilaudid for her own use and abused controlled substances to excess, DPH records show. By July, she had violated that probation because she had not submitted any drug test results, records show.
The board also reprimanded the Connecticut RN license of Linda M. Swanson of Royal Palm Beach, Florida. Records show that Swanson was placed on probation in Florida for having failed to adequately assess and document the treatment of a patient in alcohol withdrawal in March 2014.
Swanson chose not to contest the charges in Connecticut and signed a consent order that was approved by the board.