We hear shocking news all the time, but it’s not every day that we hear stories about nurses committing serious crimes.
Nurses, our trusted guardians of health, are supposed to be people you can trust and rely on, but that isn’t always the case.
This is especially true for the nurses in the three shocking crime stories I share with you in this week’s episode of NCLEX Ready.
Want to learn more?
Then tune in now!
Three Years of Prison for Illegal Prescriptions With an Expired License
I came across this article, written by Kevin Accettulla, on the WFLA website where he tells the story of a New Port Richey nurse who was sentenced Friday, February 2nd, 2024 to three years in prison for issuing illegal prescriptions. Although she was an advanced practice registered nurse, her license was expired. She was issuing these illegal prescriptions while knowing her license was expired, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
It is within the scope of practice for an advanced practice registered nurse to issue prescriptions for controlled substances. The nurse’s license expired at the end of July. However, someone else played a role in this crime by providing this nurse with more than a dozen IDs and driver’s licenses. This provided her the ability to issue prescriptions for these so-called patients, such as promethazine with codeine and oxycodone, without being evaluated.
From January 2021 all the way until August 2022, the nurse issued thirty-four prescriptions for oxycodone and hydromorphone for her husband. However, her husband died in 2018! Did she think that people would not eventually put two and two together here? Not only is she going to three years in prison for issuing illegal prescriptions, she also has agreed to give up her nursing licenses. I don’t think she really had much of a choice here anyway.
Justice Served: Ex-Oregon Prison Nurse Sentenced to 30 Years for Abusing Women in Custody
Conrad Wilson wrote an article about Tony Klein, a former Oregon prison nurse, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison in October 2023 for sexually assaulting numerous women. This occurred at the state’s only prison for women. This case has been noted by Federal prosecutors as the largest case of its kind that the U.S. Department of Justice has prosecuted. This is based on both the number of victims as well as the number of charges.
Klein started working at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville from 2010 to 2017. However, the sexual abuse didn’t start until 2013 or 2014.
In July 2023, a federal jury convicted Tony Klein of sexually abusing nine women in prison. He was also convicted of lying under oath. He refused to accept responsibility, as he’s a father of two daughters, a husband of nine years. He’s an active member of his church, a volunteer coach, helped neighbors with construction projects, provided assistance during the 2020 wildfires and was painted as a selfless individual. However, all of this becomes irrelevant when he clocks into work and uses his power over these vulnerable victims.
He was in a position of a healing guardian that these women should be able to depend on, especially while being in a vulnerable position. These women felt that they could not report the sexual assaults because they believed that nobody would believe them over a nurse. The sexual assaults occurred during their medical appointments or when the inmates worked as orderlies cleaning the prison infirmary.
Victims spoke out at the trial regarding their mental health and the detrimental effect the sexual assault has on their relationship with other people or other healthcare providers. Imagine feeling at your lowest point and not being able to trust the very people who have the knowledge and ability to heal you back to normal. People should be able to walk into a hospital or a clinic and trust that these healthcare staff members will give them the best care possible. It is so heartbreaking to hear how multiple women had to endure a nurse’s abuse of power.
The Life Sentence of British Neonatal Nurse Lucy Letby for the Deaths of Seven Babies
This article, written by Camilla Alcini and Somayeh Malekian on the ABC 7 News, depicts the story of former British nurse Lucy Letby, who was sentenced in August 2023 to life in prison for killing seven babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital. This took place between June 2015 and June 2016. She was finally arrested in 2018.
Ten painful months for the families to endure, and during that time, ex-nurse Letby actually claimed that she did not harm any of the babies and that the deaths were due to poor hygiene as well as hospital staffing issues. During that time, she was convicted of murdering seven babies and was also in the process of attempting to kill six others.
Based on the court documents, some infants were killed by being injected with air. Two were poisoned with insulin. Several were force-fed milk. To add salt to the wound, Letby refused to even attend the sentencing to be present for the judge and families’ testimonies.
There is an investigation that will follow up on why this nurse was allowed to continue working on the unit and obtain a high count of seven deaths even though senior doctors have been stating their concerns about her for months. There are truly not enough life sentences for someone who would go after the most innocent humans in the world.
When we think of nurses, we think of selfless professionals and not of individuals that would use their position of power to prey on the weak. Going through these stories serves as a chilling reminder that the healthcare profession is not immune to the darker side of humanity.
