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A BC nurse has been suspended for a year for failing to tell the regulator she changed jobs while she was under investigation.

However, the regulator is being tight-lipped about the details and won't disclose why the nurse was under investigation in the first place or what grounds it had for the stern penalty.

According to a June 15 BC College of Nurses and Midwives decision, registered nurse Deanna Lenhardt (aka Whitton) breached an agreement she made with the regulator while it was investigating her.

The College says she's based in Hope and the professional misconduct occurred from August 2022 to February 2023.

However, the College gives no information about what Lenhardt was alleged to have done that put her under investigation in the first place. Nor is any information given about where she was working prior to being suspended.

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As is common practice, the College refused to comment when asked about the investigation, citing it can't remark further than the information in the published decision.

The published decision is scant on details but says Lenhardt had come to a voluntary undertaking with the College while under investigation.

"The failure of a registrant to abide by their binding promises poses a risk to public safety and undermines BC College of Nurse and Midwifes' public protection mandate as well as has the potential to erode public confidence in the professions of nursing and midwifery," the decision reads.

A one-year suspension is a relatively steep penalty compared to other disciplinary actions handed out by the College.

Snooping on medical records has resulted in nurses being suspended anywhere from 10 days to 10 weeks, and swiping narcotics from work can lead to anything from being put on restrictive conditions to a three-month suspension.

In February, a BC nurse who failed to assess a patient and then lied about it received a five-month suspension, and earlier this year a psychiatric nurse got suspended for six months for having a sexual relationship with a former patient.

READ MORE: BC nurse loses licence over sexual misconduct with psychiatric patient

It's impossible to say why Lenhardt received the punishment she did without more transparency from the College. 

In comparison to another quasi-judicial body, the BC Law Society recently published a 13-page decision to explain why it had issued a nine months suspension to a lawyer. The BC College of Nurses and Midwives decision is three paragraphs in length.

Lenhardt has been in trouble before and was working under unknown restrictions for more than two years from 2012 to 2014.

There is no public record of what Lenhardt did to have her nursing licence restricted and again the College refused to comment.

The decision says Lenhardt signed a consent agreement with the College admitting to her recent misconduct.

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She's now barred from nursing for a year and will have to reapply for her licence if she wants to continue nursing. The decision says if she reapplies she'll have to meet the requirements of "fitness, competence, and good character."

"The Inquiry Committee is satisfied that the terms will protect the public,' the decision says.

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