Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner Vanessa Caldwell. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
A mental health nurse who had a sexual relationship with a prisoner in her care has been struck off the register and suspended from practice.
The Health and Disability Commission has found the nurse, who was employed by a primary health organisation, breached professional boundaries and ethical standards.
The woman's role was to help prisoners suffering psychological distress.
Each prisoner could have up to 10 sessions of therapy with the nurse, but extra sessions were allocated when a prisoner was in crisis or needed more time to complete their treatment.
Between October 2019, the month after the nurse started work at the prison, and September 2021, she had 105 sessions with one male inmate. Eight of these sessions were by phone due to Covid restrictions.
The affair was discovered when the prisoner was found with contraband in 2021 and put under surveillance.
The prison's Site Emergency Response Team (SERT) began to monitor his phone calls and it became apparent he was in a relationship with the nurse.
In addition to their "therapy" sessions, the pair also communicated covertly by phone up to three times a day, through a number approved by the prison service under a fake name.
During these phone calls - described as "extremely graphic and sexual in nature" - the pair called each other pet names and reminisced about previous sexual encounters, such as one in "a supermarket carpark where they were apparently witnessed by a trolley pusher".
Video footage from the prison from September 2021 showed the nurse and the prisoner engaging in what appeared to be sexual activity in a "black spot" area, which was only partially visible to the camera.
The prison director told the commission that after being informed about the video footage by the security manager, she called the nurse for a meeting on 30 September 2021.
The nurse's access to all prisons was suspended immediately, and she was escorted off site after collecting her personal belongings.
She resigned from the primary health organisation the next day, writing: "As you are aware, I am unable to give the one month notice as per my contract. I sincerely apologise for the difficult situation I leave behind".
Deputy commissioner Vanessa Caldwell said the nurse's relationship with Mr B breached fundamental ethical standards, given the power imbalance between clinician and patient.
"I do not consider that such a relationship being consensual alters this fact. This power imbalance will always mean there is the potential for abuse of the nurse's professional position and harm to the health consumer," Caldwell said.
The Nursing Council said the nurse had been suspended from practice and her name removed from the register.
