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By Tony Poland, LegalMatters Staff • A lawsuit launched after a woman passed herself off as nurse at a B.C. hospital might eventually lead to reinforced hiring procedures and help safeguard the public institutions we trust, says Toronto class-action lawyer Tina Q. Yang.
Yang, associate litigation lawyer with Waddell Phillips Professional Corporation, says class-action lawsuits such as the one filed against B.C.’s Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) not only have the potential to provide justice to those who were wronged, but also bring about changes that protect the public at large.
The lawsuit alleges a woman used falsified documents to secure employment as a registered nurse at Vancouver’s Women’s Hospital and Health Centre and that the PHSA “failed to properly review” her credentials. According to the claim, the nurse had “inappropriate and illegal contact with multitudes of vulnerable patients” from June 2020 to June 2021 and many suffered mental distress and nervous shock.
A news report states the woman is facing impersonation charges in British Columbia and was also charged in Ottawa for allegedly falsely working as a nurse in a medical and dental clinic.
Lawsuit alleges ‘an affront to community standards’
The plaintiffs seek punitive damages arguing the health authority failed to appropriately respond to complaints made against the nurse and that exposing the public to an unlicensed and unqualified health-care professional was, “outrageous, reckless, wanton, without care, callous, and a disregard of the Class and an affront to community standards.”
The allegations have not been proven in court.
Yang, who was not involved in the case but comments generally, tells LegalMattersCanada.ca the impact of the allegations can have widespread implications.
“It is important we take incidents such as this seriously because the impact is not limited to one person or one institution,” she says. “This type of behaviour tends to undermine patient-physician relationships generally, since patients must have utmost faith in their medical professionals in order for effective care to be given.
‘Any failure to verify credentials can be serious’
“It is essential for this type of claim to be brought so that there is a greater degree of accountability and so that these people can obtain some measure of justice,” Yang adds. “Any failure to verify credentials can be serious. Part of providing health care is ensuring that qualified individuals are the ones caring for patients. There are standard practices that are supposed to prevent incidents like this from happening. And the fact that someone was able to do it repeatedly is concerning.”
The lawsuit claims the woman had “an extensive history of using forged credentials to work illegally as a nurse.”
“Much of this information is a matter of public record,” according to the claim. “All this information was readily available to PHSA had it exercised a reasonable level of diligence.”
Yang says the “case comes at an interesting time” when the pandemic has stretched the health-care profession thin, causing staffing shortages.
“There has been much discussion about staffing in the health industry recently,” she notes. “Underlying all of this is a general public policy issue of how our nursing services are understaffed. It has been tough in the past couple of years to get qualified nurses and keep them. I’m not saying that will impact the analysis of liability on the part of the defendants, but sometimes these contextual factors do come into play.
Legal aspect is straightforward
“But when you get down to it, the legal aspect of a claim such as this is actually pretty straightforward. In this case, a person without the proper credentials should not have been permitted to treat patients pursuant to provincial regulations.”
Proper screening cannot be overlooked, even in times of staff shortages, Yang says.
“Patients must be able to have absolute faith in the health-care profession. We have seen how dangerous it is when that faith is damaged,” she says. “Take what is going on with COVID vaccinations, where some people and populations have legitimate hesitancy and mistrust of the medical profession, which is exacerbating some very serious public health issues.”
The lawsuit also claims the nurse committed “the Tort of Battery” by administering treatment without proper consent. Yang says that is “unusual in a class action” and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.
Commonality is the core issue in winning certification
“The core issue with getting any class action certified is commonality and the tort of battery has an innately individualistic aspect to it,” she says. “I think that a judge would tend to look at this skeptically at certification.”
Yang says people passing themselves off as health-care professionals and treating patients is a concept “right out of the movies” and needs to be vigorously addressed.
“We have all dealt with nurses and we do so without wondering if they are truly qualified to treat patients,” she says. “You just assume that your faith in the institution is justified. It is something we all take for granted when we go to a hospital or clinic.
“Class-action lawsuits such as this one are certainly effective in terms of bringing ongoing attention to this issue,” Yang adds. “It means if you fail to take the adequate screening steps, you cannot simply sweep it under the rug. You cannot just say you have fired the offending party and the problem is solved. Lawsuits keep the pressure on and serve as behavior modification.”
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