Winnipeg nurse accused of repeated 'bullying and racist behaviour' should lose licence, lawyer argues

WARNING: This story contains details of racist remarks.

A Winnipeg nurse accused of bullying patients and hospital staff over decades could lose her licence to practise in the province.

On Tuesday, an inquiry panel with the College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba heard about three complaints made against the nurse in 2020 and 2021, which allege she was condescending towards patients and junior staff, and intimidated them.

The nurse, who cannot be identified before a decision is made, has been licensed in Manitoba since the mid-1990s.

Although she previously acknowledged the date of the hearing, she didn't show up on Tuesday and didn't appoint anyone to represent her. A plea of not guilty was entered on her behalf by the panel.

David Swayze, the lawyer representing the college's complaints investigation committee, asked the panel to find the nurse guilty of professional misconduct, to declare her "ungovernable" and strip her licence to practise in the province.

The nurse, who has been on an interim suspension since early 2025, has a disciplinary history that stretches back to 2007 and demonstrates a "repetitive pattern of behaviour," Swayze said in his opening remarks.

The nurse was known to call junior staff names like "idiots" and "stupid," receiving a number of complaints from her colleagues, and she also regularly called patients "pieces of sh-t," the panel was told.

The nurse is accused of denying a hospital bed to a homeless person with COVID-19, even after beds became available, and that patient didn't comply with the hospital's mask policy and was incontinent while waiting overnight in the ER waiting room, putting patients and staff at risk, the panel heard.

One patient who complained about the nurse said they felt humiliated and discriminated against while seeking care for severe stomach pain in July 2021, because she couldn't speak much English and the nurse wouldn't let her husband translate for her, Swayze said.

"If you don't stop talking, I'm going to kick you out of the hospital," the nurse told the woman's husband, the panel heard.

Another patient — who has since passed away — said she also encountered the nurse while seeking care for severe abdominal pain in 2021, and that the nurse shushed her after she began to cry while describing her pain, Swayze said.

"Why are you crying? You need to stop that," the nurse told the patient, the panel heard.

When the nurse learned that the patient was taking medications for ADHD and depression, she muttered "that explains it," under her breath, the panel heard.