The advanced practical registered nurse (APRN) license of Jane M. Buckley of Wallingford was placed on probation for a year and she was fined $500 by the board for inappropriately prescribing controlled substances from January-July 2018 to a patient despite evidence of addiction, according to her signed consent order. Buckley also failed to provide requested medical records in a timely manner, failed to maintain adequate treatment documents, and failed to appropriately assess, manage and/or treat addiction and/or mental health issues, according to the consent order.

Buckley’s license had previously been reprimanded and placed on probation in June 2018 for prescribing a controlled substance to a family member without adequate treatment records in 2015 and 2016, according to the consent order. Buckley successfully completed that probation on Dec. 11, 2018.

Under the terms of her current probation, Buckley’s patient records must be randomly reviewed monthly by a doctor or another APRN approved by the state Department of Public Health (DPH).

The board issued a $1,000 fine and reprimanded and placed on probation the licensed practical nurse (LPN) license of Buenna R. Neupaver of Bristol for engaging in a relationship with a client who was receiving treatment at the Hartford Dispensary Bristol Clinic in Bristol, where Neupaver worked. According to her signed consent order, Neupaver violated the standard of care when she was in the relationship, from December 2017 to July 2018. Neupaver’s license was placed on probation until she completes coursework on professional boundaries, profession ethics and social media in nursing, the board ruled.

The board reprimanded the registered nurse (RN) license of Christopher A. Vallas of Clinton after he made an inappropriate comment to a visitor of a patient at Middlesex Health Shoreline Medical Center in Westbrook, where he worked, on Jan. 11, 2017. Vallas has since completed coursework on professional communication, ethics and professional boundaries, according to his signed consent order.

The board placed the LPN license of Ashley E. Lambert of Thompson on probation for four years and ordered her to attend therapy, undergo random drug tests and attend a support group eight to 10 times a month, according to her signed consent order. According to documents, Lambert was found to have abused or used to excess heroin, cocaine, marijuana and Trazadone from 1998 until April 2019.

The board also reprimanded the registered nurse (RN) license of Elaine B. Simms-Walton of Enfield, placed her license on probation for six months, and ordered her to take coursework in advanced directives and critical thinking. According to her signed consent order, Simms-Walton was working as a nurse supervisor with a resident who had a physician’s order that requested life-sustaining treatment, including CPR, in an emergency. On March 10, 2019, Simms-Walton, according to the consent order, failed to start CPR, call a “code blue,” or use the external defibrillator once she realized the patient had no pulse.

The board reprimanded the LPN license of Luz Asto of New Haven after she failed to quickly initiate CPR on a resident of Branford Hills Healthcare Center found unresponsive with a bag over the head on Sept. 5, 2017, according to her signed consent order. Asto, along with all licensed staff at the facility, received training on initiating CPR immediately when a patient who is full code is found without a pulse or respiration, even if the situation presents as a crime scene, according to the consent order.

The RN license of Rosemary Franco of Branford was also reprimanded, in the same case at Branford Hills Healthcare Center.

The LPN license of Melissa A. Eccles of Norwich was suspended last Wednesday pending a hearing for failing to respond to a court-ordered substance abuse evaluation.

Eccles was initially ordered to undergo a substance abuse evaluation by the state Department of Public Health (DPH) in June 2018. When she failed to do so, the case went to court, and in July 2019 she was ordered to undergo the evaluation. In suspending her license prior to a hearing on her case, the state nursing board found that her continued practice as a nurse represents a “clear and immediate danger” to the public health and safety.

The LPN license of Rene Cottrill of Portland was suspended for three months, and placed on probation for four years, for failing to comply with the terms of a June 2019 consent order, which required Cottrill to undergo random weekly drug testing and therapy. Cottrill was disciplined for abuse of benzodiazepines, marijuana and alcohol. Cottrill told the board she had relapsed and used methadone, alcohol, and buprenorphine in July and August.

After a hearing, the RN license of Amanda Claffey of Newington was removed from suspension and placed on probation for four years for drug abuse. According to her signed consent order, while working as a nurse at Hartford Hospital, between January 2017 and January 2018 Claffey diverted hydromorphone, OxyContin and clonidine for her personal use, and used marijuana on Feb. 14, 2018. In April 2018 Claffey was diagnosed with severe opioid and cannabis use disorder. While working as a nurse at Bristol Hospital in January 2019, Claffey admitted diverting morphine for her personal use. Under the terms of her probation, Claffey must attend therapy, submit random drug tests, and is limited in the scope of her practice during probation.

The board placed on probation for four years the RN license of Patricia Fryer of New Haven. In her signed consent order, Fryer admitted abusing marijuana and cocaine in the fall of 2017 and again on June 12, 2019. During her probation she must undergo random drug tests, attend therapy, and cannot work as a pool nurse, in home health care, or be self-employed.

The RN license of Kathryn Lovejoy of New Haven was placed on probation for four years, following a hearing. The board had suspended Lovejoy’s license in August after it found her severe alcohol use disorder, as well as multiple emotional and substance abuse disorders, represented a “clear and immediate danger” to the public health and safety. Lovejoy entered a rehabilitation program in March 2018 and was required to submit to random urine screens and breathalyzer tests, records show. In June 2019 the rehabilitation center referred Lovejoy’s case to DPH after she used alcohol and failed to comply with urine tests, stating “they were unable to confirm [whether Lovejoy was] … fit to practice [nursing],” according to records.

Lovejoy must undergo random drug testing, attend therapy for the four years of her probation.

The board also placed on probation for one year and reprimanded the advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) license of Armand Ntchana of Glastonbury, after receiving a complaint from a patient’s sibling. According to his consent order, Ntchana failed to practice in collaboration with a physician as required by law during the first three years after receiving his APRN license; and failed to document working in collaboration with a physician. His probation includes coursework in advanced-level nursing scope of practice; documentation that he is practicing as an APRN in collaboration with a physician; and quarterly written reports from that physician.

The board revoked the registered nurse (RN) license of Kathryn Y. Ford of Wilton after finding that her continued practice as a nurse posed a threat to public safety, according to a memorandum of decision. Ford’s license had previously been suspended for using marijuana, cocaine and heroin to excess from January 2017 to August 2018.

The licensed practical nurse (LPN) license of Presley Eze of West Hartford, who has a long history of disciplinary actions, was also revoked. State records show that Eze was high on PCP in 2011 when he brandished a sword outside the Trader Joe’s store in West Hartford, and he has been arrested four times since then, records show. In May of 2018 the board placed his license on probation for four years and ordered him to undergo random drug tests. He did not comply with the terms of his probation, records show.

The board also revoked the Connecticut RN license of Yahchika Leonard of Cleveland, Ohio, after she was disciplined in Georgia, Mississippi and Washington state. Connecticut state law allows the board to take disciplinary action against a nurse who was disciplined in another state.

The board voted to suspend the RN license of Jasmine Quinones of Middletown, finding that her abuse of drugs and alcohol affects her practice of nursing.

The RN license of Myra Espanol of Trumbull was placed on probation for two years. Espanol, who was working as a nurse supervisor at The Curtis Home, was called to a room shared by two patients, because one patient was hitting the other with a wheelchair foot-rest, the consent order said. Espanol directed an LPN to call 911, told two aides to remain in the room, and left the room to complete paperwork. According to the terms of her probation, Espanol must also complete coursework in first aid and understanding the nursing role during emergency care.

The board also:

• Extended the probation of Tracy Kane’s RN license for four years for substance abuse, with a number of conditions: she must undergo random drug and alcohol screens weekly during the first and fourth years of probation, and twice monthly for the second and third years; provide written reports from her therapist monthly for the first and fourth years of probation and quarterly for the second and third; attend eight to 10 support group meetings per month with quarterly attendance reports; and abstain from solo practice. In April 2016 Kane, of Naugatuck, tested positive for alcohol, and her license was placed on probation for three years. While on probation, Kane tested positive for alcohol in November 2018.

• Ordered a four-year probation for RN Amanda Hart Vernon for abusing and diverting opiates and abusing alcohol. Hart, who worked at Hartford Hospital, must undergo therapy, submit to random urine screens, submit employer reports, complete ethics coursework, cannot practice solo, and cannot access or administer controlled substances for one year, according to her consent order.

• Placed on probation for four years the LPN license of Danielle Works of Stafford Springs. Works, who worked in Massachusetts from September 2016 to January 2018, had her license suspended in that state because she “diverted and/or utilized Roxanol, Dilaudid and/or oxycodone to excess,” failed to accurately document medical records, and falsified one or more controlled substance receipt records. She subsequently gave up her Massachusetts license. The board, in placing Works’ Connecticut license on probation, found that she “is and remains actively involved in recovery, attending therapy, anonymous support groups, and submitting to random urine screens, all of which have been negative.” As part of her probation, Works is not allowed to access or administer any controlled substances for one year, and must attend coursework in general and nursing practice ethics.

• Agreed to a four-year probation for RN Dana Zordan of Rocky Hill for substance abuse, including opioids and amphetamines, according to the consent order. Zordan, who suffers from opioid use disorder, must attend therapy, undergo random urine screens, cannot access or administer controlled substances for one year, and must attend support group meetings, the consent order said. After accepting Zordan’s consent order and placing him on probation, the board also lifted the suspension of his RN license.

The board revoked the registered nurse (RN) license of Charlene Zikaras of Milford for continuing to practice as a nurse after being told to stop by the state. Zikaras, who worked at the Stamford Ambulatory Surgical Center, had her license placed on probation for four years in December 2018 for alcohol abuse and was required to submit urine screens. On April 22, Zikaras’ urine tested positive for alcohol and on May 3 she was told to refrain from working as a nurse. Zikaras went to work on May 8, the Department of Public Health (DPH) reported.

Dana Zordan of Rocky Hill had her RN license revoked for opioid and excessive use of amphetamines, according to the board’s memorandum of decision.

The RN license of Brian Gross of Feeding Hills, Mass., was revoked after finding that he failed to submit urine tests required when his license was placed on probation for alcohol abuse in November 2018. Under the terms of his probation, Gross was required to undergo weekly urine screens. Gross failed to submit urine screens when asked on six different days in May, according to DPH.

The licensed practical nurse (LPN) license of Daisy Acosta of Waterbury was reprimanded and placed on probation for one year for a number of violations. According to the consent agreement, Acosta, who worked for All About You Home Care Services in Naugatuck, improperly accepted money from the parents of a patient she was caring for; failed to accurately document the patient’s medical records; signed documents saying she visited and medicated the patient on a day when the patient was not at home; and failed to notify her supervisor that the patient had been diagnosed with pneumonia and had been prescribed antibiotics.

The board suspended the LPN license of Renee Cottrill of Portland for three months and placed her license on probation for four years for abusing marijuana, benzodiazepines and/or alcohol. According to the signed consent order, she must undergo counseling and therapy for the length of the suspension, refrain from using controlled substances, and undergo random urine tests.

The board placed the LPN license of Stacey Thompson of Milford on probation for one year for failing to perform CPR on a patient in a timely manner. Thompson was working at St. Camillus Rehabilitation & Nursing Center in Stamford when a patient “became pulseless and without respiration” on Feb. 16, 2018. Although the patient had an advanced directive and a physician’s order which required life-sustaining treatment, Thompson failed to perform CPR in a timely manner, the consent agreement said. Thompson is required to attend and complete coursework on advanced directive policies, procedures and practice standards.

The RN license of Rafael Diaz of Suffield was reprimanded and he was fined $1,000 for failing to disclose a previous consent order under which his emergency responder license was placed on probation for four years for substance abuse including alcohol, cocaine, marijuana and MDMA.  In settling that case, Diaz voluntarily surrendered his EMR certificate on Sept. 29, 2014.

The RN license of Adrienne Ziemkiewicz of Shelton was reprimanded for failure to properly administer medication as required by a physician’s order. Ziemkiewicz was working as a school nurse at Long Hill Elementary School in Shelton in March 2018 and received a doctor’s order to administer eye drops every two hours to a special needs child, but failed to administer the eye drops from March until June 4, 2018, the consent order said. Ziemkiewicz successfully completed coursework in critical thinking, medication safety, medical error reduction, intellectual disability health care needs, medical documentation and nursing scope of practice.

The board also banned RN Tammy Meyer of Portage, Indiana, from practicing nursing in Connecticut after she was disciplined by the state of Wisconsin for alcohol abuse.

The Connecticut board can impose discipline on a nurse licensed in Connecticut if the nurse has been disciplined in other states.

Meeting in Hartford on April 17, the board imposed a four-year probation on the registered nurse license of Kerry Donlon of the Oakville section of Watertown, who stole the opioid painkiller Hydromorphone for her own use while working as a nurse at Yale New Haven Hospital in 2016, a consent order she agreed to said.

Donlon also took allergy medicine and medicine for muscle spasms for her own use while working as a nurse at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport in 2018, the order said. She used all three drugs to excess, the order said. Donlon chose not to contest the allegations.

The board also imposed a four-year probation on the RN license of Cynthia Pfeiffer of New Fairfield, who stole the painkillers Percocet and oxycodone from the stock of drugs meant for patients while working as a nurse in 2016 at Candlewood Valley Health Care in New Milford, a consent order she agreed to said.

The order said that she also abused those drugs to excess during 2016. By signing the order, she did not contest the allegations.

The board reinstated the RN license of Debra George of Southington and placed it on probation for four years. In 2013, she had voluntarily surrendered her license after state officials said she had abused morphine, a consent order she agreed to said. She has been attending therapy sessions and passed all drug tests since 2013, records show. In signing the order, she chose not to contest the allegation.

The board also imposed a three-year probation on the RN license of Donna Duncan of Watertown. A consent order she agreed to said that between 2014 to 2018, she had abused alcohol to excess. Her alcohol tests have been negative since July, the order said. In signing the order, she admitted no wrongdoing but chose not to contest the allegations.

The board also added six months of probation to the two years already imposed on Nicole Santo, a licensed practical nurse from Waterbury, because in 2018, she tested positive for an anti-anxiety drug in violation of the board’s previous order, state records show. While admitting no wrongdoing, Santo chose not to contest the latest allegation.

The first nurse, Laura Kisatsky of Cornwall, abused alcohol in December, in violation of a consent order she agreed to in 2014. In July, state Department of Public Health (DPH) officials had told the board that Kisatsky’s use of morphine endangered the public. Those charges are pending.

In 2005, Kisatsky had voluntarily surrendered her license after admitting stealing controlled substances while working as a nurse at Yale New Haven Hospital, records show. In 2014, her license was reinstated and placed on probation for four years, and she was ordered to undergo random drug and alcohol tests.

The second RN, Lori Karen Salupen of Bristol, tested positive for alcohol in November, violating a 2016 memorandum of decision of the board.

At that time, the board had placed her license on probation for four years and ordered her to undergo drug and alcohol tests. The board’s memorandum said that Salupen had stolen and abused Percocet in 2015 while working at Cook Willow Health Center in Plymouth. Salupen also falsified controlled substance records while working there, the memo said.

Lenore Leone of Avon, an advanced practice registered nurse, who works at the private school under her married name, Lenore Severni, prescribed the drugs for herself and seven friends and relatives from 2014 to 2017, a consent order she agreed to said. The board also reprimanded her license.

From 1992 to 2017, Leone also practiced and prescribed controlled substances without having a collaboration agreement with a doctor, as state law requires, the order said. Under the order, Leone must enter into an agreement with a doctor.

In August, the board had rejected a $2,500 fine against Leone, with some members saying the fine was too low.

In separate action with the state Department of Consumer Protection in 2017, Leone agreed not to prescribe controlled substances for herself, her family or friends except in an emergency, the order said.

In signing the order, Leone admitted no wrongdoing but chose not to contest the allegations. In a June 29 letter to the board, her attorney, Adam Carter Rose of Hartford, wrote that Leone has already established a formal relationship with a doctor. She was about to retire as the school’s director of nursing but was asked to continue working there on a part-time basis, he wrote.

“Above all, Lenore wishes to make clear that she takes this situation very seriously and is dedicated to practicing at the highest standard of care,’’ Rose wrote.

Robert A. Orenstein, the school’s chief financial officer, said the nurse is a longtime, “valued staff member” who works part time as an APRN in its health center. He said the board’s action is between her and the board and he declined to comment on it.

The board revoked the registered nurse license of Amanda Alarcon of Shelton because she violated an earlier four-year probation the board had imposed in 2017. At the time, it placed her license on probation for four years because she had abused heroin between 2011 and 2014, state records show.

The board found Wednesday that she had failed to attend therapy sessions and failed to submit to random drug tests, records show.

The board also ordered a four-year probation for Christine DeFusco, a licensed practical nurse, of Rocky Hill, after finding that in 2016, she abused alcohol to excess, a memorandum of decision said.

That year, she was arrested in Rocky Hill, admitted to drinking vodka in her car and was charged with her third DUI, the memorandum states. At the time, she was on a court-ordered probation for a 2013 DUI conviction, it states. In 2016, she pleaded guilty to the third DUI charge and had a breathalyzer device attached to the ignition of her car, records show.

DeFusco has undergone treatment for alcohol use disorder, records show. While her license is on probation, she must undergo random drug and alcohol attests and continue therapy, the memorandum states.

The board also placed the RN license of Charlene Zikaras of Milford on probation for four years and ordered her to undergo random drug and alcohol tests, a consent order she agreed to said.

The order said that Zikaras abused alcohol to excess in January and February but her urine tests have been negative for alcohol since March.

But there’s a problem: the only LPN refresher course approved by the state Department of Public Health won’t accept anyone with an active disciplinary order.

Carl Jordan Castro Photo.

Heather Delaney wants to get relicensed as a LPN, but is facing obstacles registering for a refresher course.

One of the nurses, Heather Delaney of Oxford, says she has beaten the addiction to the anti-anxiety drug Klonopin that caused her to alter a prescription in 2010 and can safely return to nursing. She agreed to a consent order with the state Board of Examiners for Nursing in 2016, only to be turned down by the approved program, at South Dakota State University, because of the order. Delaney was one of two nurses featured in a January 2018 C-HIT article on nurses and addiction.

Frustrated that DPH officials wouldn’t change her order, Delaney told the board in July about the dilemma she’s facing. It declined to revise her consent order but promised to look into the problem.

“Why require us to take a course that doesn’t exist?,” she said in an interview. “It’s made me virtually unemployable.”

DPH learned of the problem in 2017 and the board was told “immediately,” but board members have not changed their recommendations on consent orders since then, Christian D. Andresen, DPH’s section chief of Practitioner Licensing and Investigations, said in a statement.

Also, in October, the board unanimously approved a consent order that requires former LPN, Kokumo Lauray of Hartford, to take the refresher course. At the same meeting, the board recommended the course for a third former LPN seeking reinstatement, Herbert Terry III of Waterbury.  The board will likely vote at a future meeting on Terry’s case.

Lauray and Terry could not be reached for comment, but Delaney said she can’t understand why the board would place others in the same situation.

“I’m very frustrated, and I’m angry that now, they’re doing it to other people,” she said.

The board’s chair, Patricia C. Bouffard, said the board members are concerned about the situation. “We’re very sympathetic,’’ she said. “The board recognizes that she (Delaney) has been placed in a kind of Catch-22, but we, as a board, can’t mandate compliance without an active consent order. We’re going around in circles.”

DPH’s Andresen said that requiring the course protects the safety of the public by ensuring that nurses returning to the field are competent to practice. He said DPH may consider revising consent orders if it can find another way for LPNs to prove their clinical competency. DPH is not aware of any Connecticut schools planning to offer an LPN refresher course, he said.

The Connecticut League for Nursing offers a refresher course for registered nurses, but discontinued its LPN course in 2013 due to low enrollment, Marcia B. Proto, its executive director, said.

In addition to the online South Dakota course, LPNs must take 80 hours of clinical refresher work with a health care facility and pass the national nursing exam to have their licenses restored.

Delaney, who voluntarily surrendered her license in 2011 after being caught changing her Klonopin prescription, said she has been clean since then. She said passing the exam would prove she is safe to practice. If her license is restored, it will be on probation for four years, with required drug tests.

As a backup plan, Delaney, 41, is enrolling in drug and alcohol rehabilitation counselor program at Gateway Community College in January. But she’s not giving up her fight.

“I would like to be able practice as a nurse free and clear,” she said. “I want this to be settled.”

The registered nurse, Kerrisha Stacy-Ann Hurd of Elmont, New York, took the painkillers meant for the patients but did not administer the doses to them between January and March while she worked in the Post Anesthesia Care Unit of the hospital, state records show.

In March, she fainted while on the job, and a syringe with a bloody needle was found in her uniform pocket, records show. Then on April 26, she admitted that she gave herself a shot of Dilaudid while working, records show. She was taken to the emergency room and tested positive for opiates, records show.

The board concluded that Hurd’s continued practice as a nurse represents a clear and immediate danger to the public.

This week, the board came to the same conclusion about Presley Eze, a West Hartford licensed practical nurse, and suspended his license.

Eze has a long history of disciplinary action before the board, and state records show that in 2011, he was high on PCP when he brandished a long sword outside the Trader Joe’s store in West Hartford, records show. He has been arrested four times since then, records show.

In May, the board placed his license on probation for four years and ordered him to undergo random drug tests. Since June, however, he has not complied with the terms of his probation, records show, so the board suspended his license.

The board also reprimanded the RN license of Gregory Coyle of Ansonia, who in 2017, while working for All About You Home Care Services, failed to appear for scheduled home care visits for a patient and failed to administer medication to the patient, a consent order he signed said. He also falsified medication records, the order said. Coyle has completed courses in documentation standards, ethics and patient rights. In signing the order, Coyle chose not to contest the charges while admitting no wrongdoing.

Records show that Coyle does not currently live or practice in Connecticut. The board placed a restriction on his license that requires him to give the board 90 days’ notice before resuming practice in Connecticut. If that happens, he must also wait until the board can issue an order to monitor his practice.