Fears bizarre advice 13 HEALTH nurse will do it again

Colleagues of a 13 HEALTH hotline nurse who bizarrely told a distressed patient with severe abdominal pain to masturbate under the shower and rub oil on her anus are shocked that she is back at her desk.

Colleagues of a 13 HEALTH hotline nurse who bizarrely told a distressed patient with severe abdominal pain to masturbate under the shower and rub oil on her anus are shocked that she is back at her desk, and fear further unprofessional even dangerous advice being given to patients.

The Courier-Mail has been informed that the registered nurse was on a short period of sick leave and is back on the phones, and the source claims she was not adequately disciplined or given training to improve her delivery of health advice.

Patient in severe pain who needed urgent help told to masturbate in shower

“The fact that nothing has been done to prevent this occurrence happening again is beyond belief and certainly not in line with Queensland Health values of accountability and integrity,” the source said.

A Queensland Health spokesman said: “We are unable to comment on specific details relating to an employee and ongoing HR matters.

“We can confirm this individual is not currently providing any unsupervised clinical advice to callers.”

The department previously said it was investigating, and offered an apology to the patient in the incident that could have proved highly dangerous.

It is believed the patient had just gone through a serious operation and was in so much pain she had called the hotline in desperation for answers late at night.

This was a textbook case for the 13 HEALTH nurse to advise urgent medical attention at the hospital rather than encouraging her to suffer on at home carrying out highly bizarre remedies. The patient could have been suffering from an internal bleed or infection.

The 13 HEALTH phone help line receives more than 1000 calls per day.

The Queensland community relies on being able to get quality medical advice night or day.

Close to 170 RNs work at the call centre on a 24/7 roster and are required to have a minimum of two years recent post grad experience in an acute setting. It is believed the nurse in question has five years’ experience.

Nurses are not allowed to diagnose patients, that can only be carried out by doctors and the helpline staff have been given strict guidelines on how to respond to patients.

Queensland Health assures the community that the advice provided by 13 HEALTH is of a high standard.