A 24-year-old Kingston, Ont., girl has been sentenced to accommodate arrest for what a choose referred to as a collection of lies that included forging nursing credentials that allowed her to deal with roughly 200 sufferers earlier than being came upon.
Madeline Stenhouse appeared within the Ontario Court docket of Justice on Tuesday carrying a black go well with and glasses. She nodded as Justice Alison Wheeler described her “youthfulness” as a cause to indicate restraint in sentencing.
“Ms. Stenhouses’s offending was the product of immaturity in not figuring out settle for or cope with the truth that she failed nursing college,” the choose learn from her choice.
The pretend nurse was sentenced to 2 years much less a day to be served locally, together with 18 months of home arrest.
She was additionally ordered to finish 240 hours of group service with the Elizabeth Fry Society and to pay $40,000 to the College Hospitals for Kingston Basis.
In delivering her sentence, Wheeler stated sufferers depend on the health-care system and have to be assured they’re being cared for by professionals.
“Ms. Stenhouses’s conduct was calculated, sustained and had the potential to hurt a variety of people that have been in a medically susceptible state,” stated the choose.
Stenhouse beforehand pleaded responsible to defrauding Kingston Well being Sciences Centre (KHSC) of greater than $5,000 and utilizing a solid doc.
Court docket heard she repeatedly lied about her degree of schooling and supplied falsified credentials, together with a photograph of a level she had not earned and a doctored screenshot from the web site for the School of Nurses of Ontario (CNO).
Assistant Crown lawyer Courtney Cottle had referred to as for a jail sentence, urging the court docket to attract a “harsh line” to discourage anybody else contemplating impersonating a health-care employee.
Stenhouse actively deceived the hospital and put folks in danger on daily basis regardless of a number of alternatives to come back clear, the lawyer argued, including the accused was “basically committing fraud for 672 days.”
“It is not a matter whether or not it was about monetary acquire, immaturity, eager to please her mother and father.… That is about her being ready of duty to look after folks after they’re extraordinarily susceptible,” stated the Crown.
“The one method … to try to cease this behaviour is to indicate those that you’ll go to jail. Actual jail.”
‘I remorse each second’
Stenhouse apologized, describing her arrest as a “wake-up name” and taking duty for her actions.
“I by no means supposed to trigger hurt and it’s not misplaced on me, the seriousness of what I did,” she learn from a bit of paper throughout an April court docket look. “I remorse each second of it.”
On Tuesday, Wheeler learn out the information of the case, counting seven lies Stenhouse had instructed throughout her time on the Kingston Basic Hospital.
She initially utilized to be a nursing assistant in April 2021, offering verification of enrolment from St. Lawrence School displaying she was in her third yr. Nonetheless, she had solid that doc, court docket heard.
The truth is, Stenhouse had dropped out within the fall of 2019 and all data she supplied about her research was false. That included her software in April 2022 to work as a registered nurse, in keeping with the information.
Court docket heard Stenhouse was given the paperwork to acquire a short-term licence however by no means submitted it. In the meantime, she accomplished “buddy shifts” and was assigned to a surgical ground.
Beginning in August 2022, she started caring for sufferers with out supervision, doing so for almost 5 months earlier than she was requested to supply her faculty registration quantity on Jan. 25, 2023.
Stenhouse despatched a screenshot of the CNO web site that appeared to indicate her licence and registration quantity, however when hospital workers contacted the faculty they discovered she wasn’t in its database.
Throughout a Jan. 30, 2023, assembly with hospital workers, Stenhouse admitted she’d created the screenshot, however claimed she’d despatched it by mistake, the choose learn from the information.
Two days later, she once more met with workers on the hospital and was requested to supply proof of her schooling. As an alternative, she confirmed an image of her diploma, saying she hadn’t introduced the unique as a result of she’d travelled by bus, court docket heard.
Stenhouse was fired that very same day. Court docket was instructed her earnings together with advantages totalled $46,717.02.
Credentials simple to examine, faculty says
Defence lawyer Michael Mandelcorn had referred to as for his consumer to be sentenced to accommodate arrest.
Whereas he agreed that a nurse with out correct coaching might probably put sufferers in danger, he famous there had been no complaints concerning the care Stenhouse had supplied.
Mandelcorn stated his consumer began fighting anxiousness and despair in highschool, which continued as she began her nursing program.
Requested by Justice Wheeler why Stenhouse impersonated a nurse, the lawyer stated it was a tough query to reply however instructed her psychological well being and unwillingness to inform her mother and father that she’d flunked out had performed a task.
“If Ms. Stenhouse … might utterly articulate why she did that, she wouldn’t have completed it,” Mandelcorn stated.
Hospital says it is made modifications
KHSC introduced in February 2023 that it had fired an worker who supplied “intensive solid documentation” so as to deal with roughly 200 sufferers. A spokesperson stated it was the primary time KHSC had encountered such a scenario.
Following the incident, the hospital stated it had modified its insurance policies in order that orientation for brand new nursing graduates would solely start after their registration had been verified. The hospital will even examine the standing of its nurses with CNO month-to-month as a substitute of yearly.
The school beforehand instructed CBC it has on-line instruments to rapidly examine the registration standing of anybody claiming to be a nurse, nonetheless a easy on-line search of Stenhouse’s first and final identify utilizing the CNO’s “Find a Nurse” tool revealed no outcomes.
As an alternative, her identify now seems on an inventory of “unregistered practitioners,” which the faculty’s web site states is for people who will not be nurses however might “holding themselves out” as certified for the job.
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