A junior nurse who had a threesome with two vulnerable female patients and gave them advice about self-harm has been banned for five years.
Teagan Maree Cant was found guilty of professional misconduct over her conduct towards two women, aged 26 and 27, whom she helped treat for life-threatening mental illness at a Perth hospital in 2020.
The disturbing allegations about Cant’s conduct were made by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia and detailed in court documents heard by the Western Australian State Administrative Tribunal on October 10.
The court heard Cant had sex with Patient A, aged 27, three times, including the same day she was discharged from hospital after a month’s stay.
She also kissed her at a nightclub, attended her birthday party and chatted with her on Facebook Messenger, including when she was in the hospital.
During Patient A’s months-long hospitalization for treatment of complex PTSD with depressed mood, Cant offered her a “stitch removal knife… to help her avoid harming herself or committing suicide” while working with her was a treatment room.
A junior nurse who had a threesome with two vulnerable female patients and gave them advice about self-harm has been banned for five years. Pictured: File image of a nurse holding a diary
When Cant did not offer her the knife, Patient A refused it.
She also failed to assess her wounds and did not report her attempts at self-harm.
During that admission, Cant developed a relationship with the patient by sharing information about her own relationship, her traumatic experiences and her “serious psychological problems.”
On the same day that Patient A finally left the hospital, Cant went to her home with the 26-year-old woman known as Patient B.
Patient B went to sleep on the couch while Cant had sex with Patient A, but then joined them for the ‘threesome’.
Cant had sex with Patient A two more times: on August 1, 2020, and “had sexual contact with her by kissing her” at a nightclub on August 14.
Patient B was admitted to the same hospital for a total of eight weeks in mid-2020 due to a low mood and increasing suicidal thoughts.
During her stay, Patient B admitted that she was suicidal to Cant, who responded “that won’t work” and then described medications she would take to “guarantee death.”
“If I did it, I would take (a certain drug),” Cant told her.
The Nursing and Midwifery Board alleged that Cant ‘engaged in inappropriate conduct and inappropriate contact and/or crossed professional boundaries in relation to both Patients A and B.’
It was also alleged that she had breached codes of conduct and ethics on several issues including ‘professional boundaries’ and ‘the professional responsibility of nurses to people in their care’ and that she had failed to uphold standards around ‘professional and personal relationships’.
Cant worked as a nurse at Perth Hospital between March and September 2020 when she was dismissed for disciplinary reasons.
The court heard she recognized the ‘seriousness of her conduct and had expressed great regret and remorse’ and had experienced personal distress at the time.
She was barred from applying for registration as a doctor until 2028 and ordered to pay $3,000 towards the costs of the hearing.