State Suspends Polk Nurse's License Alleging Drug Abuse

Published: Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 10:20 p.m. Last Modified: Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 10:20 p.m.

LAKELAND | The Florida Department of Health has suspended the license of registered nurse Damian Slifer, accusing him of drug use and not complying with substance-abuse treatment.

The chain of events leading to Slifer's emergency suspension last month began on April 16, 2012.

A Winter Haven Hospital human resources manager contacted Intervention Project for Nurses, a program for impaired nurses, and said Slifer was believed to be diverting pain medicine from work for his own use.

Two days later, the emergency suspension order says, Slifer contacted the intervention program. He said he worked part time at Winter Haven Hospital and full time at Lakeland Regional Medical Center.

He admitted to using both Dilaudid and fentanyl, another pain drug, the order says.

Slifer, in his mid-20s, said he had experimented with drugs previously. He said he hurt his back in January 2011 and used leftover morphine from work to relieve the pain, the order says. Since it relieved his pain, Slifer said he began diverting more pain medication.

He was using it daily by August 2011, the order says. A doctor who examined him in May 2012 said Slifer was addicted and needed chemical dependency treatment.

The order details outpatient and other treatments, punctuated by reports Slifer tested as having used amphetamine and methamphetamine.

He said he could stay sober in residential treatment, but that he relapsed on outpatient treatment, it says. He was discharged from the impaired practitioner program in January 2013 after officials said he hadn't followed its rules.

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State Suspends Polk Nurse's License Alleging Drug Abuse