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An Interior Health nurse was suspended for four months after repeatedly accessing patient records, including those of a family member.

The BC College for Nurses and Midwives said Laura Atcheson had a "wanton disregard" for patient privacy, after she snooped through records for seven people between September 2016 and September 2017.

None of those seven people were her own patients, but one was a family member. The College said she went on to share those details with her mother.

A discipline panel found she breached the privacy of those patients in a March 2022 decision before it decided to suspend Atcheson for four months on Sept. 20, 2023.

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The decision did not say when the College became aware of her actions, nor did it say where she was working within the Interior Health region.

It did say Atcheson was confronted by a union rep and a manager after she was found to have accessed records for four patients. She was made to take privacy training in May 2017, but it didn't stop her from looking through medical information for three more people.

The decision says that although she admitted to looking through those records to the union rep and manager, she has not admitted to those that followed and showed "no remorse" for her actions.

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The College, however, said it's important that she is reprimanded in order to maintain public trust in nurses and healthcare workers.

Licensed practical nurse Atcheson is the seventh nurse to be reprimanded for snooping on medical records this year. She will be ordered to take four educational courses before she can return to work.

She also has six months to pay the College $4,451.79 in costs.

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