Facts
The Member admitted that she engaged in professional misconduct. In 2015, while working as a Registered Practical Nurse on an inpatient unit at a Hospital, the Member provided care to a patient with several serious health conditions. During the Member’s shift on January 3, 2015, the Member made a handwritten change to the patient’s medication administration record (“MAR”) without a physician’s order to increase their morphine dose from 2 – 5 mg every two hours as needed to 5 – 10mg every two hours as needed. The Member then documented administering seven 10mg doses of morphine to the patient in the MAR, which was inaccurate. The Member misappropriated the morphine which she documented as having been administered to the patient. When the night nurse took over the patient’s care for the overnight shift, they administered two 10mg doses of morphine to the patient, in reliance on the Member’s handwritten alteration of the patient’s MAR. The patient became unresponsive and died, which the Coroner concluded, on a balance of probabilities, was due to morphine toxicity.
In January 2016, following this incident, the Member voluntarily surrendered her certificate of registration. In August 2022, the Member pleaded guilty to criminal negligence causing harm in relation to the patient’s death. The Member acknowledged to police that she had a health condition which impacted her practice.
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:
- abused a patient
- falsified records relating to her practice; 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, 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. The Member cooperated with CNO and accepted responsibility by agreeing to the facts and a proposed order. The Panel noted that had the Member not entered into the undertaking, it would have found that only revocation of the Member’s certificate of registration would have sufficed.