The Iowa Board of Nursing has suspended a Fairfield nurse’s license after allegedly engaging in more than 25,000 phone calls or text messages with an underage patient.

Iowa Capital Dispatch states that Michael Schleicher was working as a nurse practitioner at an unspecified Iowa hospital from August 2014 to January 2020, during which he treated a female minor. Schleicher is accused of beginning to contact the girl by phone and text message in 2016. In 2017, they allegedly engaged in more than 17,000 contacts, including 3,000 phone calls that the board says took place after midnight. The two continued contact in 2018 when the girl was 18 years old and allegedly engaged in a sexual relationship at an unspecified point in time. The board charged Schleicher with initiating a sexual, emotional or social relationship with a patient, committing an act that may adversely affect a patient’s pyschosocial welfare, and engaging in behavior that is contradictory to professional decorum.

As part of the settlement agreement, Schleicher has agreed to the indefinite suspension of his license, and before applying for reinstatement he must complete a three-day instructional course on professional boundaries and ethics and undergo a comprehensive mental health exam. The suspension order states that he continues to deny the board’s allegations, and as part of the formal, written agreement he has stated that he entered into the settlement only to avoid the burden and expense of contesting the matter.