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Elenita Lumibao, 8123648
Facts
The Member admitted that she engaged in professional misconduct. At the time of the incident the Member was the charge nurse on a night shift in a geriatric psychiatry unit (the “Unit”). The Member and three nursing colleagues transferred an elderly patient with moderate to advanced dementia, who appeared to be calm, from a wheelchair to a Broda chair in the Unit’s dining room. The Member’s colleagues then applied a pelvic restraint to the patient while the Member was in the room. Neither the Member nor her colleagues documented the application of the restraint or the rationale for applying the restraint. The patient was left restrained in the Unit’s dining room for approximately 5.5 hours. During this time, the Member and her colleagues failed to appropriately observe and monitor the patient, or continually assess the ongoing need for restraints.
Upon observing the patient in the early morning, the Member believed that the patient was deceased. The Member did not conduct a visual or physical assessment. The Member’s colleague wheeled the patient to his room. The Member and her colleagues placed the patient in his bed with the collective intention to make it appear that the patient had died in bed or more recently than the Member suspected. The Member failed to document any information about the patient’s death and her colleague falsely documented that the patient was in bed during the time that he remained restrained in the Broda chair. The Member later provided inaccurate information during the facility’s investigation into the patient’s death and agreed with her colleague to provide inaccurate information regarding the death.
Discipline Committee’s Findings
Based on the Member’s admissions, a panel of the Discipline Committee of the College of Nurses of Ontario (the “Panel”) found that the Member:
- contravened a standard of practice of the profession or failed to meet the standards of practice of the profession;
- abused a patient physically and emotionally;
- failed to keep records as required; and
- engaged in conduct, relevant to the practice of nursing, that, having regard to all the circumstances, would reasonably be regarded by members as disgraceful, dishonourable and unprofessional.
Discipline Committee’s Order
The Member signed an undertaking to permanently resign as a member of the College of Nurses of Ontario (“CNO”) and agreed not to apply for membership with CNO at any time in the future.
In light of the Member’s undertaking, the CNO and the Member jointly sought an order requiring the Member to appear before the Panel for an oral reprimand.
The Panel accepted the Joint Submission on Order, concluding that the proposed penalty was reasonable and in the public interest.
