What did the state say a Florida nurse was shooting up on duty at a hospital?
A Bradenton registered nurse no longer can be a nurse after admitting to shooting up pain medication during a shift at a Sarasota hospital.
That’s the Florida Department of Health’s account of why Christine Eckles got hit with an emergency restriction order (ERO) on the license she’s had since October 2015. Eckles’ space on the DOH website says her license is in voluntary withdrawal, an agreement with the DOH that prohibits her from practicing in Florida.
According to the ERO, Eckles worked at Doctors Hospital in Sarasota when staff asked to search her locker and personal stuff. Eckles also got asked to give some urine.
The urine sample was found to be diluted. Also found: an empty vial in Eckles’ purse. Eckles said the vial had contained Dilaudid, the brand name for a pain medication hydromorphone.
“Eckles admitted to diverting leftover Dailaudid and to injecting it intramuscularly at work,” the ERO said.
She admitted the same thing to a physician she saw after self-reporting to the Intervention Project for Nurses (IPN), which monitors care and treatment of impaired nurses. When her hair was tested, it came back positive for pain medication hydrocodone and carboxy-THC, a medtabolite with the active ingredient in marijuana.
The IPN physician diagnosed a moderate opiate use disorder in Eckles. He recommended a “partial hospitalization program with community housing.”
Eckles hasn’t entered into that form of treatment. Even without the voluntary withdrawal, she would need to be approved as safe for nursing by an IPN evaluator.
This story was originally published January 19, 2020 at 12:32 PM.
