3 Manitoba nurses punished for denying they had criminal records despite impaired driving convictions

December 16, 2024 Canuck

Three Manitoba nurses were punished this year after repeatedly claiming they had no criminal records despite past impaired driving convictions, as the provincial regulator says it’s working to require regular background checks for all nurses.

The College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba, which regulates the province’s more than 14,000 registered nurses, says it discovered the convictions during targeted annual background checks for swaths of nurses that began six years ago.

Two nurses were punished by disciplinary panels — one in May and another in August — after they pleaded guilty to professional misconduct, according to decisions published by the college. One of those nurses did not reveal three impaired driving convictions that date back 35 years.

A third nurse was censured and fined $1,000 in May after failing to disclose an impaired driving conviction from 2007.

“In these three cases, what’s specifically at issue is not so much the fact that there was a criminal conviction in the past, rather the fact that it was not disclosed/reported to the college despite having been asked several times,” college spokesperson Martin Lussier told CBC News.

The college was required to conduct background checks on its members after it was brought under the governance of Manitoba’s Regulated Health Professions Act in 2018, Lussier said.

Between 750 to 2,000 nurses are selected each year to submit background checks, which includes a criminal record check with a vulnerable sector search, as well as adult and child abuse registry checks, he said.

Nurses who have been registered in Manitoba the longest have been the first to face the checks, as it’s more likely they have never have had to provide them to the college, said Lussier.

The college also hopes to soon require regular background checks from all registered nurses in order to align with requirements for other regulated professions in the province and to ensure quality assurance, he said.

‘People are afraid of losing their jobs’

The harshest penalties among the three nurses were given to a 64-year-old who failed to acknowledge three impaired driving convictions in registry renewal applications, according to the May decision against her.

The college handed her a $10,000 fine, the maximum allowed under legislation, and ordered her to pay $3,750 in costs.

She told the college that she didn’t disclose a 1989 conviction because it happened before she became a nurse in 1990. She didn’t report impaired driving convictions from 2002 and 2006 as she thought they were violations of the Highway Traffic Act, and not the Criminal Code, she said.

The panel noted the penalties for that nurse — who makes about $1,000 a week, has $60,000 in debt and no savings — would likely affect her ability to retire.

But the penalties will deter others and show that similar conduct will be investigated, reviewed and punished, while also maintaining continued public trust in registered nurses, the decision said.

Sonia Udod, an associate professor at the University of Manitoba’s college of nursing, told CBC News she understands the background checks are meant to ensure public safety, but they raise some concerns.

“They’re trying to do their part by using registration as a tool to protect the public, which is great, but people are afraid of losing their jobs,” Udod said Thursday.

“That’s why [nurses] are putting in false registration information, and here we have situations where people have been convicted of a criminal offence decades ago and [are] still being punished, so that will just create even more fear.”

A woman with short, light-coloured hair wearing black-rimmed glasses, a brown leather jacket and a white and black patterned shirt looks toward the camera. — Sonia Udod, an associate professor at the University of Manitoba, says the College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba’s punishments for the nurses who did not disclose their convictions could spark fear among those in the profession. (Jeff Stapleton/CBC)

The college has to weigh its ethical standards against decades-old impaired driving convictions, Udod said.

“We all make mistakes … and it’s not like I’m trying to minimize it in any way, but that’s a long time ago for some of these people,” she said.

“There also needs to be some concern, some empathy for the nurse that has done this, and I think they need to be helped, assisted, supported.”

The college does offer some support to nurses who have been involved in the professional conduct process, Lussier said, including consultations and a remedial program that aims to guide nurses while avoiding formal disciplinary measures.

‘Imperfect accountability’ from nurse

The other nurse who pleaded guilty to professional misconduct this year cited fear as a reason for failing to disclose a 1988 impaired driving conviction.

However, the panel raised concerns about her behaviour during the investigation, which it described as inconsistent.

The 60-year-old nurse, who started practising in 1990, told the college she was remorseful about not disclosing her criminal record in several applications.

But “I was afraid to disclose it in case it caused me to not carry on with my career as a registered nurse,” she wrote in an email to the college, which was included in the August disciplinary decision.

The nurse attempted to retract those comments in a later interview with a college investigator, saying she “totally forgot about” the conviction and did not consider it a criminal offence.

She also told the investigator she had never had a criminal record check done in order to apply for work as a registered nurse, but the college found she had a check done in 2012, in order to work at a health centre in Minnedosa, Man.

The centre did not share information about her 1988 conviction with the college, according to the panel.

The nurse showed “imperfect accountability,” the panel wrote, saying she at times demonstrated “a lack of honesty and forthrightness,” but at others showed “a degree of self-awareness and accountability.”

A $10,000 fine was initially proposed to match the decision from May, but it was lowered to $8,000 after the panel noted key differences between the two cases, such as the number of impaired driving convictions. The nurse was also ordered to pay $3,750 in costs to the college.

The disciplinary panel said those penalties acknowledged the seriousness of her misconduct, and sent a message that all registered nurses will be held accountable for their actions.

“Registrants often cause themselves more harm over the coverup than the crime,” the panel wrote.

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