Reports: Male Nurse's Invasive Questions to Gay Patients Ruled Misconduct
A male nurse in Canada committed "professional misconduct" in having "solicited unneeded intimate sexual history details" from gay patients, the British Columbia newspaper TriCity News reports.
The conduct of Paul Perry at two clinics in Vancouver, Canada, came under scrutiny by the B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives. A panel determined that Perry had asked for "detailed and personal sexual histories from clients when not needed," as well as "information about past sexual, physical or psychological trauma."
In probing patients' histories of abuse and trauma, the panel said Perry "may have further traumatized a client" and he "had not referred clients to appropriate supportive services in those cases" and was "found incompetent in providing psychological counseling to patients when not qualified to do so."
The panel's ruling noted that Perry had been"employed in the health authorities' prevention program with the specific mandate to work with the vulnerable and high risk population of men-who-have-sex-with-men ('MSM') and said that the "level of detail": Perry sought from the patients "was not clinically indicated and was contrary to the goals and/or mandate of the MSM program".
The panel specified that Perry had "recorded sexual histories in patient records using non-clinical descriptions" such as "fisting" and "bottoming," the article said, with the terms being described as "inappropriate nonclinical descriptors".
It further faulted Perry for "unclear" and error-riddled records, saying his notes demonstrated "lack of a logical flow of information such a clinician would be unable to follow your clinical decision-making".
The panel also found Perry "committed professional misconduct... when he accepted work with the University of Northern B.C. and did not provide appropriate disclosure into an investigation into his nursing practice," the article said.