College missed its own paper trail on killer nurse
Body failed to firmly consider a history of unprofessional conduct, inquiry told
The same regulatory college that found Elizabeth Wettlaufer unfit to practise in 1995 failed to scrutinize its own records after she was fired from the nursing home where she murdered seven residents, a public inquiry heard Friday.
The College of Nurses of Ontario had a paper trail on Wettlaufer that documents how weeks into her first job she stole drugs from Geraldton District Hospital, overdosed, lied about what had happened and admitted to a colleague that she had also recently used hashish. Her conduct led the college in 1997 to find she lacked the capacity to practise safely; the regulator placed restrictions on her that were lifted after a year.
But 17 years later, after Caressant Care in Woodstock reported it had fired Wettlaufer, the intake investigator who reviewed the nurse’s history wrote she had never been deemed an addict, using identical wording coined in 1995 by the lawyer hired by the nurse to defend her.
“The medication was taken in furtherance of a suicide attempt brought on by an acute episode of depression. The incident arose as a result of Ms. Parker’s depression and not as a result of drug addiction; this was a one-time only occurrence,” intake investigator Karen Yee wrote in a summary that convinced the college to simply file the report of the firing rather than investigate.
That language is identical to what Wettlaufer lawyer Elizabeth McIntyre wrote in 1995 while arguing the college should not find that the nurse lacked the capacity to work: “The medication was taken in furtherance of a suicide attempt brought on by an acute episode of depression. The incident arose as a result of Ms. Parker’s depression and not as a result of drug addiction.
“She has no history of drug addiction or of drug usage; this was a one-time only occurrence,” McIntyre wrote. Yee’s use of identical wording as her conclusion was exposed at the inquiry by Alex Van Kralingen, a lawyer who represents the families of murder victims Arpad Horvath and James Silcox. “(Wettlaufer’s lawyer’s) words are very similar to yours,” he said. While Yee couldn’t recall what she did and why, if she did rush through her review, as it appears, she did testify earlier that she believed that the nurse’s conduct at Caressant Care was not all that serious, in large part because the nursing home failed to disclose fully how Wettlaufer’s conduct and health status might have placed residents at risk. Caressant Care only detailed concerns during the last two years of her seven-year tenure. Those concerns were about mistakes commonly made, mistakes that create a low risk for residents, Yee said. So while the nursing home noted there were other issues from 2007 to 2012 related to absenteeism and professional behaviour, Yee assumed those concerns were even more minor.
Yee testified Caressant Care failed to share with the regulatory college a number of things that may have triggered a more vigorous probe: In its termination report, Caressant Care didn’t mention how Wettlaufer once blamed a mistake on a change in her own medication for mental illness. Caressant Care hid from the regulatory college that she had told the nursing home she had health issues that triggered safety concerns. Caressant Care didn’t disclose how Wettlaufer had claimed she had administered a narcotic that she didn’t sign for.
The narcotics concern would have been a red flag for the college, Yee testified. So too were unreported allegations of abusive conduct.
“I would have made note of that (in my summary),” she said. Yee testified that she asked the director of nurses at Caressant Care if the state of Wettlaufer’s health posed any risk to residents. “(The director’s) response led me to believe no,” Yee said. Wettlaufer confessed and pleaded guilty to eight counts of first degree murder, four counts of attempted murder and two counts of aggravated assault between 2007 and 2015.
Seven deaths occurred at Caressant Care in Woodstock and one at Meadow Park in London.
The medication was taken in furtherance of a suicide attempt brought on by an acute episode of depression . . . and not as a result of drug addiction.