State licensing regulators are petitioning for sanctions against the license of a nurse accused of sleeping on duty, giving improper care to patients and misappropriating drugs for her own use.
According to the petition issued by the state Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing, Carla B. Sims, West Jordan, is accused of two counts of unprofessional conduct.Sims was a licensed practical nurse at the South Valley Care Center when she received an order from a physician to increase the daily medication for a patient, the petition said.
But Sims continued to administer the lesser dosage for three days and then failed to give the patient any medicine for another three days, the petition said. "As a result . . . (the patient) developed congestive heart failure and was admitted to the intensive care unit at Cottonwood Hospital."
Last December, Sims failed to put a feeding tube into a pump that regulated the feeding of a paraplegic patient, the petition said, and the excessive feeding caused the patient to vomit.
The petition said medications were missing at the end of Sims' shifts. One night the janitors found her "sprawled out in a chair, her arms were hanging over the arms of the chair shaking . . . (and her) eyes were rolled up in her head. She was in this condition for approximately 45 minutes," the petition said.
At another time, Sims was found sleeping on duty and could not be awakened, the petition said.