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

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.

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.