Nurse at Kensington care home faces discipline for bad behaviour to colleagues

The College of Registered Nurses and Midwives of P.E.I. has imposed disciplinary measures against registered nurse Yvonne Mariwande for a third time, fining her $1,000 and restricting her to office duties pending a retraining course.

There has been no hearing into the allegations made against Mariwande in November 2023, but a decision posted on the college's website said the nurse could avoid the hearing process if she signed off on the proposed discipline by Sept. 6, 2024. 

"Ms. Mariwande did consent to an order of the investigation committee which imposed conditions on her registration," the college confirmed in an email on Thursday. "No hearing was required in this matter. She has a registration to practise with conditions, and her employer is aware of her conditions."

When CBC News contacted her about the college's ruling, Mariwande said she had no comment. 

Mariwande now works at Clinton View Lodge in Kensington.

The college's committee said there was evidence that she was guilty of professional misconduct at that workplace in that she:

The other two complaints, handled with hearings in 2020 and 2021, arose from her behaviour to colleagues and patients at the Prince County Hospital Medical/Palliative Unit in Summerside.

She was described in those two complaints as "being rude, bullying, and demeaning" to a licensed practical nurse and "rude, confrontational, demeaning, berating or belittling" to a nursing student, among other issues.

Those including telling a terminally ill patient that he stank, yelling at a patient with dementia to "shut up," and placing a device that let a patient self-medicate for pain out of that patient's reach. 

Mariwande represented herself at those two hearings, saying she was under a financial constraint as a single woman who was sending money home to her relatives in Africa. 

At the 2021 hearing, according to the college's decision at that time, "The member defended herself by saying that she isn't there to make friends, just to do her work. She is private and not friendly with her co-workers; she is there to work and nothing else."

Furthermore, the ruling said, Mariwande felt she was being discriminated against by coworkers "who do not like her and were trying to get her fired."

With regard to the latest complaint, the college ruled that Mariwande must pay a fine of $1,000 and complete "an in-person nursing education course at her own expense... with learning outcomes focused on emotional intelligence and interpersonal communication and leadership." 

The nurse was restricted to office duties until she could prove she had taken such a course, and her performance will be monitored for five years after finishing the course by the co-ordinator of regulatory services for the college.