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November 14, 2023 - 7:00 PM
A retired BC nurse must pay $20,000 in penalties for “incompetently” using oxytocin to induce labour in pregnant patients.
The penalty was was imposed long ago, but just affirmed after her case before the college took a detour through the courts.
Registered nurse Shannon Whieldon, who previously worked for Fraser Health Authority, took the BC College of Nurses and Midwives to court after the regulator investigated her practice as a perinatal nurse. A judge in that case ordered the College's discipline panel to reconsider three allegations related to Whieldon's use of Oxytocin with patients.
On Oct. 27, the panel found, again, Whieldon "incompetently" used the drug to induce contractions during labour.
Whieldon's hearing first started in May 2019. The college investigated complaints from 2016 and 2017, finding she failed to properly administer Oxytocin and failed to "escalate care" when faced with what might have been a seizing newborn.
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In 2021, Justice David Masuhara overturned the college's findings with regard to the possible seizure. He found Whieldon did, in fact, bring her observation to another nurse.
The baby didn't have a seizure, but the college said the issue was whether or not Whieldon took her observation to the charge nurse.
Masuhara found the college was incorrect and Whieldon took appropriate steps to deal with the baby's "strange movements."
As for her use of Oxytocin, Whieldon told the court she was on leave in 2013 when the practice standards in using the drug were changed.
The college found she failed to deliver the correct amount of Oxytocin to more than one patient. Masuhara didn't overturn the college's decision on those three allegations, but did order it to reconsider the findings.
He said the college's decision wasn't clear whether Whieldon deliberately went against the Oxytocin protocol or whether it was a matter of incompetence.
The college did revisit the decision, substantiating the complaints as a matter of incompetence.
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The college also noted that Whieldon did not appeal the $20,000 penalty in court, adding that it would not have changed its mind even if it did revisit that decision.
"The majority of the citation allegations were proven and the allegations that took the most time and resources to advance were proven by the College," its Oct. 27 decision reads.
Whieldon's license was suspended for 12 months. If she decides to return to nursing, she'll have various practice conditions on her license, including a prohibition from working in perinatal care again.
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