Two nurses submitted fake applications in order to get their licenses. Two others were caught with child porn. Another was accused of giving alcohol to a patient being treated for chemical dependency.
These nurses and four others had their licenses revoked by the Minnesota Board of Nursing in the first half of 2010.
The board currently oversees the licenses of more than 108,000 nurses. In the first six months of this year, the board received 750 complaints and took 184 disciplinary actions.
The board posts licensing actions online, which is where I found details of the revocations. The former nurses are listed in alphabetical order.
Vincent Belfleur: Belfleur's 2008 licensure in Minnesota was based on a false application. The nursing program he supposedly completed in Pago Pago, American Samoa, was not in operation at the time, and his application listed work experience at a facility that did not exist.
Dale F. Brown: Brown was acting as a nursing supervisor in 2007 at a home care facility in Adams even though he had surrendered his registration certificate earlier that year for noncompliance with a treatment program. The facility revised his job description to eliminate nursing duties, but he continued to act as a nurse.
Mary A. Cooper: Cooper admitted she diverted medications for personal use from two assisted-living facilities between 2005 and 2009 and sometimes substituted other medications. In October 2009 she was let go from a treatment program after she tested positive for narcotics.
Barbara A. Currin: Currin, owner of a Plymouth home health agency, provided substandard care as retaliation against a patient who had complained to the state, according to the nursing board's disciplinary order. In late 2007, Currin began delegating the administration of injectable medications to unlicensed staff. According to an investigation by the attorney general, Currin employed 10 family members at that time in her business, Ometta Vent Care Services Inc.
