Allegations
It was alleged that the Member committed professional misconduct by failing to maintain the boundaries of the therapeutic nurse-patient relationship with two patients and their families beginning in December 2016 and continuing through November 2020. Specific allegations included that:
- the Member made personal disclosures both of a true and untrue nature to patients and patients’ family members without any clinical purpose;
- the Member accepted $15,000 and other gifts from the patients’ family members;
- the Member resided in the home of the patients’ family members during the patients’ life and has continued living in the home of a deceased patient’s family after the patient’s death;
- the Member listed patients’ family members as her own emergency contacts and falsely identified herself as a member of a patient’s family including calling the patients’ parents her own mother and father;
- the Member misappropriated medication from a patient and/or failed to safely store this medication and protect the personal health information of the patient; and
- the Member practised nursing and held herself out to be a nurse while her certificate of registration was suspended.
Member’s Position
The Member did not attend the hearing and was deemed to have denied the allegations.
Discipline Committee’s Findings
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;
- misappropriated property from a client or workplace;
- contravened a term, condition or limitation on the member’s certificate of registration;
- contravened a provision of the Nursing Act, 1991, the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 or the regulations under either of those Acts; 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 Panel made an order that included:
- an oral reprimand;
- immediate revocation of the Member’s certificate of registration; and
- a fine in the amount of $15,000.
The penalty imposed by the Panel takes into account specific deterrence, general deterrence and remediation and rehabilitation, all with a view to public protection. The public is protected through the revocation of the Member’s certificate of registration as the Member is no longer a risk to the public. The fine ordered by the Panel will deprive the Member of the proceeds of her misconduct, as well as send a strong message to the Member and to the profession that this type of conduct will not be tolerated.