State regulators have issued a warning to a nurse accused of using stolen patient opiates while on duty.
The Iowa Board of Nursing alleges that on Dec. 3, 2024, licensed practical nurse Rachel Blair of Windsor Heights was working at an unspecified Urbandale care facility when the medication count was reported as being off during her shift, indicating the staff was unable to account for missing drugs.
According to the board, the facility was missing one fentanyl patch. During that same shift, the board alleges, Blair “fell to her hands and knees and struggled to stand.” Paramedics were called to the scene and administered Narcan — a drug commonly used for emergency treatment of an opioid overdose — to Blair.
As a result of that incident, the board recently charged Blair, 35, with misappropriating the medications of a patient or agency, then agreed to settle the case by providing Blair with a warning that any future violations could result in some form of disciplinary action. As part of that settlement, Blair agreed to participate in the Iowa Practitioner Health Program and to comply with any requirements of the program.
Blair’s nursing license remains otherwise unencumbered by any restrictions on her practice.
In 2020, the board charged Blair with attempting to initiate a sexual, emotional or business relationship with a patient. According to the board, Blair was working at a county jail in April 2019 when she participated in personal telephone calls with an inmate. “At times, the calls were sexually explicit in nature,” the board alleged.
According to the board, Blair was then fired from the jail for providing “treatment” for an inmate despite the lack of a physician’s order, and for admitting to having “feelings for an inmate.”
Court records show that a Polk County Jail inmate at the time told jail officials that a nurse, later identified as Blair, had been providing tobacco, drugs and sex to an inmate known as “Casper.” According to a search warrant application filed by the sheriff’s department, Blair admitted to providing “Casper” with unordered, undocumented “massaging treatments,” approximately 15 times over four to six weeks, in a private treatment room.
According to the warrant application, a subsequent review of the jail’s recorded telephone calls uncovered communications between Blair and the inmate that included “sexual content and comments referencing a personal relationship.”
A review of text messages then uncovered 199 written exchanges between Blair and the inmate, according to the warrant application. The messages also included 21 photos of Blair, the sheriff’s department alleged. In addition, the warrant application alleged that money had been deposited into the inmate’s account three separate times by depositor “Clare Loren” — Loren being Blair’s middle name and the name associated with the text messages attributed to Blair.
According to the application, Blair admitted destroying potential evidence in the case during the initial stages of the sheriff’s investigation of the matter.
In that case, the Board of Nursing suspended Blair’s nursing license pending the completion of a mental health evaluation and also required her to complete an educational course on professional boundaries.
At the end of the suspension, Blair’s license was placed on probation for two years.
