A Saskatoon nurse who faced professional misconduct charges from the College of Registered Nurses of Saskatchewan (CRNS) is now on the hook for paying $50,000 to help cover the cost of the investigation and disciplinary hearing — the most expensive in the regulator’s history.
“It’s not fair to anybody to be asked to pay that kind of money for making a mistake,” Jessica McCulloch told reporters on Thursday.
In 2019, the CRNS charged McCulloch with stealing medication, claiming she contributed to the “underground economy of the drug trade among the inmate population” at the Regional Psychiatric Center (RPC), a forensic mental health facility in Saskatoon, and falsifying charting records.
She was found not guilty of those professional charges.
McCulloch faced 21 charges in total but the CRNS discipline committee only found her guilty of nine, related to mistakes in the administration of medication at RPC and how she dealt with patients at Saskatchewan Hospital in North Battleford.
“What is most telling for us is the chair of the discipline committee, Chris Etcheverry, stated in the decision and the penalty hearing that there was limited evidence on a number of these charges that were brought against Jessica and that several of them should not have been brought in the first place,” McCulloch’s lawyer Brandi Rintoul said.
Evidence in the three-week hearing from witnesses called by the CRNA and McCulloch brought to light the poor management of narcotics at RPC, according to Rintoul.
“There are some nurses as well that testified the safes on the units were broken, they didn’t lock. So, the controlled medication was also kept unlocked and again, accessible by any nurse at any time that had a key without any sort of checks, balances or regulations,” she said.
Rintoul said the proceedings were even more difficult for McCulloch due to her severe PTSD.
McCulloch was taken hostage at the RPC in Saskatoon in June 2011, where an inmate came behind and straddled her, placed his arm around her neck and held a toilet bowl cleaner brush made into a shank to her neck.
“This process would put a stressor on any nurse and certainly, Jessica’s mental health was deeply affected by the weight of the proceedings against her,” Rintoul said.
McCulloch said she received little support from her employer and co-workers after the incident and that having to relive what happened to her in these proceedings has been challenging.
“For me to get forward, this needs to end. It’s a daily battle for me to have to go through this over and over and over again,” she said.
“I still see my psychologist, I still see my psychiatrist, I take my medication, I try my hardest, but PTSD has taken my life pretty much.”
According to documents from the penalty decision, the investigation and hearing cost the CRNS just under $575,0000.
“Counsel for the investigation committee advised that this has been the most expensive discipline hearing conducted by the College (and its predecessor SRNA),” Etcheverry wrote in the penalty decision.
The Investigation Committee sought $250,000 in costs from McCulloch, who has not worked in any capacity since April 2019.
McCulloch’s lawyers argued she should only have to pay $10,000, but the Decision Committee determined it would be “reasonable and appropriate” for her to pay $50,000 instead.
“There is no reason this should be costing over half a million dollars. It’s ludicrous,” McCulloch said.
As it stands under the current penalty decision, McCulloch will be suspended and remain suspended until she meets a number of conditions relating to her mental health and can prove that she can “focus and concentrate enough to function effectively as a nurse.”
“I have nothing, I’ve lost everything, I’ve gone bankrupt … so, to tell me I have to pay $50,000, where’s that coming from? I don’t know. To me, it’s added punishment. It’s not fair to me, it’s not fair to any other nurses.”
McCulloch and her lawyers are in the process of appealing both the findings of professional misconduct and the penalties that were imposed.
McCulloch is critical of how CRNS handled the investigation and said it could have saved a lot of money and would not have aggravated her PTSD if things were done differently.
“I need to do this not just for me, first yes, I need to do it for me because I need to clear my name … I don’t want to see a nurse lose three years of their career, their life for an investigation .”
In a statement to CTV News, Cindy Smith, a registered nurse and the executive director of CRNS, said it “has a legislative obligation to protect the public, by ensuring the safe, competent and ethical practice of Registered Nurses in Saskatchewan.”
“To accomplish our public interest mandate, the legislation requires the CRNS to review every written complaint received alleging a Registered Nurse is guilty of professional incompetence and/or professional misconduct,” the statement said.
McCulloch said while she loved her job at RPC, she feels torn about going back to nursing.
“I found my passion for mental health and corrections, and I went that way because I believe people should be treated as people,” she said.
“But, how do you go back when you’re always looked at and this is always going to follow me, which I understand,” McCulloch said.
“The harshness in here is going to be what people remember, whether I’ve been proven guilty or not.”