A NSW nurse who struck up a relationship with a mentally ill teenage inmate will be able practise again after telling a tribunal she does yoga to manage stress and has taken ethics courses.
Kelda Brown was de-registered in 2013 after it was revealed the now 44-year-old had become embroiled in a sexual relationship with an inmate at a NSW correctional centre where she was employed as Nurse Unit Manager.
After he was released on parole, Ms Brown contacted him via Facebook, gave him her phone number and then had sex with him at a hotel.
Her husband had reported the affair to the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) after he read letters the inmate had sent to his wife in November 2010.
In a decision handed down this week, the Civil and Administrative Tribunal said the young man was "in a particularly vulnerable position as an incarcerated 19-year-old Aboriginal man with a history of self-harm and a serious mental illness".
He had been diagnosed as suffering paranoid schizophrenia and had attempted to hang himself in 2009.
But they also heard Ms Brown was also vulnerable in 2010 following her brother's suicide, the death of a friend in a car accident and marital problems.
In her push for being reinstated on the register of nurses, Ms Brown said she had completed a Healthcare Ethics course and practices yoga to assist her in managing stress.
She has also not used any illicit drugs and cut down her alcohol consumption since October 2010.
"She acknowledged that at the time of her misconduct `deep down' she knew her behaviour with Patient A was wrong'," the Tribunal noted.
The Tribunal said it was "comfortably satisfied Ms Brown has established that she is a fit and proper person to be engaged in the profession of nursing".
In re-instating her, they placed a number of conditions, saying she needed to be part of a mentoring relationship for at least 12 months when she starts working as a nurse again.
The Tribunal heard Ms Brown is now supported by a "strong marriage", lives in Mudgee and is currently working for a wine company.
