Saskatoon psychiatric nurse calls for investigation into college’s discipline process

A psychiatric nurse who worked at Saskatoon’s Regional Psychiatric Centre (RPC) and Saskatchewan Hospital, North Battleford, is calling for an investigation into the College of Registered Nurses of Saskatchewan’s discipline process.

Jessica McCulloch was fired in 2017 after she was charged by the college with numerous offences related to her work, including stealing medication, falsifying charting records and contributing to the “underground economy of the drug trade among the inmate population at RPC,” according to a statement from her lawyers, Brandi Rintoul and Bill Selnes.

She was found not guilty of those charges. However, she was found guilty of making mistakes while administering medication at RPC, and during some of her “dealings” with patients at Saskatchewan Hospital.

“For me, this was first brought up over a bag of chips,” said McCulloch. “And that’s where this started. It’s shocking. You don’t know whether to laugh or not.”

McCulloch and her lawyers held a news conference Thursday.

“I question the judgment of the nurses that do the investigation,” she said. “It’s just a conversation. I truly feel that it is more of a ‘I meet you, do I like you or not, and if I don’t like you, well, I’m just going to hold my wits on that.’ ”

The panel during the disciplinary hearings made her feel “heard,” she said, and she was grateful for that. Decisions on her charges and penalties were made in October of 2021, and on March 25 of this year.

Rintoul said along with the call for an investigation into the discipline process, McCulloch is also appealing the guilty findings, and a requirement to repay the CRNS $50,000.

“What is most telling for us is the chair of the discipline committee … stated in the decision and the penalty hearing that there was limited evidence on a number of these charges that were brought against Jessica, and that several of them should not have been brought in the first place,” Rintoul said.

McCulloch said she has declared bankruptcy, is not working, suffers from PTSD, and has no way to pay the fine. She’s not sure whether she can or wants to go back to her nursing position.

A statement from Cindy Smith, the executive director of the CRNS, reads in part: “Our role as the regulatory body for registered nursing in Saskatchewan is to protect the public by ensuring the safe, competent, and ethical practice of Registered Nurses.

“We do this by setting the expectations for good practice through the Practice Standards, Entry-Level Competencies and Code of Ethics, preventing poor practice, and contributing to the quality of registered nursing care with the best possible outcomes for the public.”

The statement also indicates that a registered nurse can appeal the decision of the discipline committee to the CRNS council, or to the court.

“This is always going to follow me,” said McCulloch. “The harshness in here is going to be what people remember whether I’ve been proven guilty or not.”