A licensed practical nurse from Rocky Hill who was sentenced to nine months in prison in connection with her toddler being badly burned in a bathtub has had her license reprimanded by the state Board of Examiners for Nursing.
On Wednesday, Shamique Martin was one of 9 nurses disciplined by the board. It placed her license on probation for four months and ordered her to take courses in ethics and being a mandated reporter of child abuse.
In February, 2017, Rocky Hill police arrested her in connection with her daughter’s burns. In September 2017, Martin pleaded guilty to one count of risk of injury to a minor and one count of making a false statement. Martin left her child in her boyfriend’s care even though she knew he was not allowed to be unsupervised with the child, state records show. When alerted about the burns, Martin failed to seek timely medical care and lied to police about how the child was injured, records show.
Rocky Hill police said that Martin’s two-year-old daughter was burned in 118-degree water, and her boyfriend, Michael Shamel Davis, staged a fire scene in a bedroom to make it seem that she had been burned there, the Hartford Courant reported. Martin had agreed in a state Department of Children and Families plan not to leave her children unsupervised with Davis, the Courant said.
In December 2017, Martin was sentenced to nine months in prison and three years of probation. In January 2018, Davis pleaded guilty to risk of injury to a minor and was sentenced to two years in prison and five years of probation.
Martin told the board in January that her daughter’s burns were healed in about a month.
The board also revoked the registered nurse license of Melissa Tackett of Cromwell after finding that in 2018, she forged two prescriptions, using the name of a resident at Westside Care Center, the nursing home where she worked in Manchester, to obtain Oxycodone for herself, a memorandum of decision said. She also used the painkiller to excess, the memo said. Criminal charges are pending against her, records show.
The board also revoked the LPN license of Nicole Miller of East Hartford, who tested positive for alcohol in 2018, just two months after being placed on a four-year probation for alcohol use, a memorandum of decision states.
State records show the board also:
• Suspended the LPN license of Christine DeFusco of Rocky Hill, saying that she violated a four-year probation by failing to submit drug and alcohol test results and failing to take part in therapy. In 2016, she pleaded guilty her third driving while under the influence charge.
• Reprimanded the advanced practice registered nurse license and the RN license of Ellen Sollazzo of Farmington, saying that in 2017, she failed to meet the standard of care by failing to perform appropriate patient psychiatric assessments. She also violated professional boundaries with the patient. Both licenses were also placed on probation for three years.
• Placed the RN and APRN licenses of Ashley Dizney of Southington on probation for four years and required her to pass drug and alcohol tests. In 2017, she paid a $1,000 fine and her license was placed on probation for four years for stealing Fentanyl from patients. In 2018, she tested positive for opiates.
• Approved a two-year license probation for RN Skye Muli of Middletown. Muli must undergo drug and alcohol tests. In 2017, she used alcohol, marijuana, opioids and cocaine to excess.
• Reprimanded and placed the LPN license of Beata Ivana Ventura of Shelton on probation for a year and ordered her to complete a course in ethics. Ventura was accused of stealing nine tablets of Zofran, a drug used to prevent nausea, while working at Greenwich Woods Health Care Center in 2017.
• Placed the LPN license of Joseph Iannicelli of Waterbury on probation for two years and ordered him to under drug and alcohol tests. In 2017, he tested positive for opiates and cocaine.