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D. Elizabeth Gherson
Facts
The Member admitted that she engaged in professional misconduct. The Member was working at a hospital as a senior nurse in a leadership position. While working alongside a nursing student, she made inappropriate and offensive comments about a physician colleague, including that the physician was “the worst of them all”, a “bitch”, “two-faced” and “anti-nurse”. The Member also made racist, inappropriate and offensive comments in front of the nursing student and a patient, including referring to “mixed-species” babies and people. Finally, on a separate occasion, the Member referred to a patient as a “bitch” after a brief verbal exchange with the patient.
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; and
- engaged in conduct, relevant to the practice of nursing, that, having regard to all the circumstances, would reasonably be regarded by members as dishonourable and unprofessional.
Discipline Committee 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 order was reasonable and in the public interest.
