CONWAY NURSE'S LICENSE REVOKED AFTER FAKE USED TO GET JOB

A Conway nurse suspended from practicing for five years in 1998 after
he harbored a teen-age fugitive has lost his license permanently after
the state Board of Nursing found he got a job with a forged license.

Along with revoking Richard T. Fowler's license, the Nursing Board
also sanctioned nine nurses in disciplinary hearings held this week.

In September 1998, the Nursing Board suspended Fowler's license for
five years for unprofessional conduct and for his Pulaski County
Circuit Court conviction. He was placed on probation for three years,
fined $500 and ordered to perform 20 hours of community service after
pleading guilty to charges of helping a teen-ager escape from Pinnacle
Pointe Hospital in Little Rock, and hiding the youth in his home while
providing him with cigarettes, alcohol and prescription medicine.

The state Department of Human Services had placed the boy in the
hospital for treatment because he was a therapeutic foster-care case
with an array of what state officials described as "conduct problems."

Fowler, 36, recently used a photocopy of a forged nursing license
certificate to obtain a job with Baptist Health, said Fred Knight, the
Nursing Board's general counsel.

Baptist officials kept pressing Fowler to present an original copy of
the license, and when he kept putting them off they checked with the
Nursing Board and discovered his license had been suspended, Knight
said.

"I must say Baptist acted fairly quickly on it," he
said.

The Nursing Board also decided that Katherine Wood Webb of
Russellville, a licensed practical nurse, may not work as a nurse for
two years because of unprofessional conduct. She was fined $500.

Also, registered nurse Elizabeth Anne Simmons of Pearcy had her
license suspended until she appears before the Nursing Board. While
employed at Levi Rehabilitation Unit in Hot Springs, Simmons tested
positive for alcohol, the Nursing Board was told. Simmons has five
days from the entry of the suspension order to surrender her license,
or the sheriff's office will be asked to confiscate it, Knight said.

The Nursing Board also suspended the license of registered nurse
Sheila Linville Long of DeQueen and fined her $500, citing actions
that Texas authorities took against her over charges of unprofessional
conduct and addiction. Her Arkansas license will be suspended until
her Texas license is renewed, Knight said.

Six other nurses' licenses were suspended after the Nursing Board
found that the nurses had not abided with the terms of consent
agreements reached with the board over previous violations that left
them on probation.

The Nursing Board suspended the licenses of:

Sulphur Springs licensed practical nurse Cheryl Ann McCaffrey for two
years for not complying with the terms of probation she received in
October 1999 after testing positive for marijuana. She was fined $250.

Licensed practical nurse Charles W. Coleman, now of Indianapolis, for
a year because he did not undergo drug testing or participate in group
support meetings, as required by an October 1999 order. He had been
placed on probation for testing positive for cocaine.

Licensed practical nurse Dana Leigh Darden of Springdale for six
months, to be followed by a year of probation, after finding her in
noncompliance with an October 1999 consent agreement over charges that
she tested positive for methamphetamine and amphetamines.

Licensed practical nurse Sherrie Lynn Henry of Harrisburg for six
months, to be followed by a year of probation, after finding her in
noncompliance with probation she received in September 1999 after
testing positive for methamphetamine and amphetamines in a
pre-employment drug screening at St. Bernards Regional Medical Center
in Jonesboro.

Pamela Jane Huddleston of Rogers and Tracy Neal McRaven of Hope, both
registered nurses, for six months with a year of probation for
violating consent agreements.

Huddleston was placed on probation in January 1999 after testing
positive for marijuana while working at Washington Regional Medical
Center in Fayetteville. McRaven had been on probation since February
1999 for a drug addiction discovered while she was working at Medical
Park Hospital in Hope.