Be they patients or colleagues, no one was spared from nurse Stacy Hinton’s verbal attacks.
“Shut the f--- up” and “OK, let’s go, you f------ idiot” are some examples of what she said to patients at Lakeridge Health in Whitby.
Or — as the College of Nurses puts it — “words to that effect.”
To her colleagues, it was “unsolicited information” about her sex life on more than one occasion.
In one case, she provided too much information about a parking lot romp before work.
All of these allegations, stemming from late 2014 to early 2015, were found to be true by a panel of the college’s discipline committee, which decided on Friday to yank Hinton’s licence at the urging of the college’s lawyer.
A table reserved for Hinton remained empty for the three-day discipline hearing, which included two days of testimony.
“Many of the member’s colleagues said she was intimidating, they were a bit scared of her,” the college’s lawyer, Emily Lawrence, told the five-member panel.
“She was boisterous, loud ... A big personality.”
Lawrence said it took two young nurses several months to “gather up the courage” to complain about Hinton to their employer. Many other colleagues then came forward in the subsequent investigation.
A spokesman for Lakeridge Health said Hinton worked at the hospital from 2011 to 2015.
“Lakeridge Health takes professional conduct seriously,” said Lloyd Rang. “When we encounter concerns, we investigate fully and we act accordingly.”
The discipline panel’s professional misconduct decision includes findings that Hinton “verbally, physically and emotionally” abused patients.
In one case, she failed to provide a patient with a blanket. In another, she placed her hands on the mouth of a patient who was screaming, pushed her head back into the pillow and told her to “shut the f--- up.”
Or words to that effect.
On more than one occasion, Hinton also made “obscene hand gestures” to patients when they weren’t looking and she mimicked the “vocalizations” of a patient with aphasia, a condition that hinders a person’s ability to speak and understand language.
Lawrence told the panel Hinton “engaged in a disturbing pattern of interactions with patients and staff ... The findings reveal a lack of empathy, a lack of professionalism, and a lack of respect for staff and patients.
“The member has not explained herself.”
Hinton, who also at one point went by the name Stacy Cruickshank, already lost her licence last year for nonpayment of fees, according to the college’s online public register. She had been registered since 1999.
Despite no longer being a member, Hinton still fell under the jurisdiction of the discipline panel because her actions took place while she was still working.
If the panel had chosen not to revoke her licence, Lawrence proposed an eight-month suspension with conditions, including meeting with a nursing expert, saying Hinton would have to show that she can change “what is clearly her default behaviour.”
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