Facts
The Member admitted that she engaged in professional misconduct. Between November 2018 and January 2019, while working as staff nurse on a Medicine/Oncology unit at a hospital, the Member was observed sleeping on shift on two occasions, failed to provide timely nursing care to a patient in need of close observation during a Transfer of Accountability for break, failed to ensure accurate, timely and complete documentation for five patients, and put a patient’s safety at risk by failing to follow the relevant code blue policy.
The Member testified about her experiences of systemic racism and harassment in the workplace, and that these workplace experiences affected 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:
- contravened a standard of practice of the profession or failed to meet the standards of practice of the profession;
- 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 dishonourable and unprofessional.
Discipline Committee’s Order
While the Member admitted to the allegations, the College and the Member did not jointly submit a proposed penalty to the Panel. Accordingly, the penalty portion of the hearing proceeded on a contested basis. One of the issues before the Panel with respect to penalty was whether the Member’s experiences of racism were linked to the professional misconduct such that it would be considered a mitigating factor.
The Panel made an order that included the following:
- an oral reprimand;
- a 1-month suspension;
- terms, conditions and limitations, including:
- attending a minimum of 2 meetings with a Regulatory Expert; and
- employer notification for 12 months.
In this case, the Panel did not consider the racism the Member experienced to be a mitigating factor because it was not satisfied that there was a connection between these experiences and the Member’s conduct.