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STATE OF LOUISIANA o"°F iou'' DEPARTMENT OF STATE CIVIL SERVICE >N9" LOUISIANA BOARD OF ETHICS .): I, P.0.BOX 4368 441 iv: BATON ROUGE,LA 70821 °*.. ,„$ (225)219-5600 FAX (225)381-7271 1-800-842-6630 wwwethics.la.gov May 22, 2018 Ms. Sharon Guardina 13450 Stonelake Dr. Folsom, LA 70437 Re: Ethics Board Docket No. 2018-471 Dear Ms. Guardina: The Louisiana Board of Ethics,at its May 18,2018 meeting,considered your request for an advisory opinion regarding your post employment restrictions following your departure from the Health Standards Section(HSS)of the Louisiana Department of Health(LDH). You stated that you retired on April 10, 2018 and would like to become a consultant to hospital surgical departments and ambulatory surgery centers to assist in the training and education in the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN)guidelines for the perioperative nurse to insure safe patient care of the surgical patient. You stated that as a medical Certification Specialist II in HSS,your duties included surveying hospitals and other non-long term care facilities for compliance with required licensing and certification regulations, citing and writing deficiencies in such facilities and testifying in administrative hearings. You stated that your findings were subject to review by HSS State Office Program Managers and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Regional Office. You stated that you were not involved in the review process and/or the determination of resultant actions and that you did not supervise anyone. You stated that you are a Certified Registered Nurse in the Operating Room(CNOR)by AORN. Prior to working at LDH-HSS,you were employed at hospitals in New Orleans where you worked in the perioperative surgical services departments,where you performed both circulating and scrub duties and were involved in precepting and educating perioperative nurses. In addition to education and training in the AORN guidelines,you stated that you would be prepared to provide guidance in areas such as nursing documentation,quality assurance procedures,infection control,and other issues that potentially impact the ability to provide and ensure safe,high quality patient care. You stated that you would not have any contact with LDH-HSS relative to findings of non-compliance or other regulatory concerns. The Board concluded and instructed me to inform you, that the Louisiana Code of Governmental Ethics(Code)would not prohibit you from working as a consultant on matters with hospital surgical departments and ambulatory surgery centers in the above described manner, so long as you did not participate in these matters while employed with LDH-HSS. La. R.S. 42:1121B(1)provides that no former employee shall,for two years following the termination of his public employment,assist another person for compensation, in a transaction, or in an appearance in connection with a transaction in which such former public employee participated at any time during his public AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER