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It’s either the story of a nightmare nurse making dangerous mistakes at the Innes Road jail — or it’s the story of a “toxic” workplace that was understaffed and pushed someone to the breaking point.
It just depends whom you ask.
Next month, a former nurse at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre will face a disciplinary hearing over allegations she overdosed patients with methadone, withheld medication from others, and complained to her manager “what the f— do you think I am? A pill counter?”
Karen Freyer’s certificate to practise nursing was suspended in August. The 55-year-old will appear before the College of Nurses of Ontario on allegations of professional misconduct.
But Freyer, who now lives in Alberta, says she was “targeted” by management and that working conditions for nurses in the Ottawa jail were “toxic.”
“I was advised by many managers and colleagues that I worked with that there was a target on my back because I didn’t lay down and take it,” she told this newspaper. “I had opposition to many, many things, and when I thought things were wrong, I reported it.”
Freyer worked 14 years at the Innes Road jail. She said that, in January 2016, she was forced to resign. The Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, while refusing to discuss specifics of the case, said a nurse at OCDC was terminated.
“At the beginning, I really liked it,” she said. “There was a lot of autonomy. You felt you were doing a good thing.”
But she grew frustrated with management and eventually chose to work the night shift “because I wasn’t doing very well on days,” she said.
“It just wasn’t possible. You couldn’t get ahead of anything and there was no help. You were drowning.”
Freyer was “shocked” by the college’s allegations, some of which she denies and some of which don’t take into account the context of working in a jail, she contends.
“They seemed to take anything and run with it,” she said. “It was an insane place to work. Management were bullies. It was a really, really toxic place to work.”
The allegations, which were referred to the college’s discipline committee last September, allege Freyer “abused a client verbally, physically and/or emotionally” and engaged in “disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional conduct.”
In its notice of hearing, posted online, the college cites seven incidents between June 2014 and January 2016.
Freyer acknowledges she had frequent disputes with managers, but told this paper she never made the “pill counter” comment, and the “big f—-ng dummy” name was always said in jest. “The expression is ‘ya big goddamn dummy.’ I called my colleagues that. They called me that. But it was always a joke.”
In the instances of missed methadone doses, she says it wasn’t done maliciously, but because of the workload Freyer had when she worked nights as the only nurse in the institution.
She does, however, acknowledge doubling up on the doses for two inmates in January 2016. It happened when labour relations at the jail were at a low and staff narrowly averted a strike. Freyer said she had changed up her regular routine and mistakenly gave two inmates methadone doses she had prepared for the next day.
“I got confused, I pulled (the dose) from the cart and double dosed. And it’s five to midnight. You’re running around all night, still giving methadone and it’s almost midnight,” she said.
“There’s no doubt it was a medication error and I didn’t deal with it rationally.”
She said she skipped a team meeting because she needed to read up on the medications she had to give three new patients, including a pregnant woman and an inmate who’d had a kidney transplant.
“I liked to set those people aside because the medication I’m giving them I’m not familiar with so I wanted to do some homework on it. The manager says, ‘I want you at the morning meeting now.’ Well, I didn’t think it appropriate that I go to the morning meeting and leave my work incomplete.”
Scott Forde, the acting president of OPSEU Local 411, which represents workers at OCDC, remembered Freyer as a popular nurse liked by staff and inmates, but one who was frequently in trouble with management because of her strong opinions.
“She challenged (management) because she felt they were asking nurses to do a job that she didn’t think was possible,” Forde said.
“On behalf of the nursing station, I can say that they have been horribly short-staffed for a number of years now. Currently, they’re supposed to have a staff of 25 and they’re at 16.”
“I know that every effort is being made to fix that — largely due to investigations and media pressure — but when we were short staffed as correctional officers, the nurses were in the same boat,” he said.
When the jail is short-staffed with correctional officers, inmates can be confined to their cells to reduce the guards’ workloads. But lockdowns can’t reduce the medical demands on nurses, he said.
“When you are running around double- or triple-dutied it is challenging at best. Our nurses are very professional but the more they’re asked to do in a short time, the likelier they are to make a mistake or to cut corners.”
The Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services has a “robust oversight and investigation process to ensure that staff conduct is appropriate and compliant,” spokesman Andrew Morrison said in an email.
“As part of the ongoing transformation of Ontario’s correctional system, the ministry is improving conditions for both staff and inmates at all correctional facilities. At OCDC, the ministry has hired six new nurses to help alleviate workload pressures,” he said.
If the complaint against Freyer is upheld at the college, she could have her nursing certification suspended or revoked permanently, face reprimand and or be fined up to $35,000.
Freyer, who moved to Alberta to be closer to family and is no longer working, said she doesn’t intend to fight the college.
“Everyone told me I was a target and, by the love of God, they got me.”
bcrawford@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/getBAC
查看原文...
It just depends whom you ask.
Next month, a former nurse at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre will face a disciplinary hearing over allegations she overdosed patients with methadone, withheld medication from others, and complained to her manager “what the f— do you think I am? A pill counter?”
Karen Freyer’s certificate to practise nursing was suspended in August. The 55-year-old will appear before the College of Nurses of Ontario on allegations of professional misconduct.
But Freyer, who now lives in Alberta, says she was “targeted” by management and that working conditions for nurses in the Ottawa jail were “toxic.”
“I was advised by many managers and colleagues that I worked with that there was a target on my back because I didn’t lay down and take it,” she told this newspaper. “I had opposition to many, many things, and when I thought things were wrong, I reported it.”
Freyer worked 14 years at the Innes Road jail. She said that, in January 2016, she was forced to resign. The Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, while refusing to discuss specifics of the case, said a nurse at OCDC was terminated.
“At the beginning, I really liked it,” she said. “There was a lot of autonomy. You felt you were doing a good thing.”
But she grew frustrated with management and eventually chose to work the night shift “because I wasn’t doing very well on days,” she said.
“It just wasn’t possible. You couldn’t get ahead of anything and there was no help. You were drowning.”
Freyer was “shocked” by the college’s allegations, some of which she denies and some of which don’t take into account the context of working in a jail, she contends.
“They seemed to take anything and run with it,” she said. “It was an insane place to work. Management were bullies. It was a really, really toxic place to work.”
The allegations, which were referred to the college’s discipline committee last September, allege Freyer “abused a client verbally, physically and/or emotionally” and engaged in “disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional conduct.”
In its notice of hearing, posted online, the college cites seven incidents between June 2014 and January 2016.
- In the first, on or about June 9, 2014, Freyer is alleged to have failed to document the care she provided to a female inmate and then to have left the woman’s health records in the cell she shared with another inmate;
- The next incident occurred on or about July 22, 2014, when Freyer allegedly refused to complete her duties and told her manager she wasn’t going to do a narcotic count. “You expect me to count pills each time? Excuse me I’m not f—ing doing that. What the f— do you think I am? A pill counter? This workplace is f—ing crazy,” Freyer told the manager, according to the notice of hearing;
- On or about March 21, 2015, Freyer is alleged to have told one inmate “now go back to bed you big f—ing dummy,” or words to that effect. She told another inmate “if you don’t clean up your cell tomorrow you’re not getting your meds” and/or “you’re not an animal so don’t live like one;”
- On or about April 20, 2015, Freyer is alleged to have refused to go to a meeting on client care issues her manager had asked her to attend, saying “I don’t care what the f— you say, I’m tired of being run around;”
- On or about June 22, 2015, Freyer is alleged to have failed to administer methadone to four inmates and suboxone, another drug used to treat opioid addiction, to a fifth inmate;
- On or about July 17, 2015, Freyer is alleged to have given a 20 mg dose of methadone to an inmate who was only supposed get a five mg dose, then failed to document and report the error; and
- On or about Jan. 17, 2016, Freyer allegedly gave two inmates a second dose of methadone — 70 mg and 110 mg, respectively — even though both had already received their daily dose. The college also alleges Freyer tried to alter the notes made by the previous nurse and failed to document and report her own error. It also alleges that she failed to monitor the two inmates for symptoms of overdose. (The college does not say what, if anything, happened to the inmates).
Freyer acknowledges she had frequent disputes with managers, but told this paper she never made the “pill counter” comment, and the “big f—-ng dummy” name was always said in jest. “The expression is ‘ya big goddamn dummy.’ I called my colleagues that. They called me that. But it was always a joke.”
In the instances of missed methadone doses, she says it wasn’t done maliciously, but because of the workload Freyer had when she worked nights as the only nurse in the institution.
She does, however, acknowledge doubling up on the doses for two inmates in January 2016. It happened when labour relations at the jail were at a low and staff narrowly averted a strike. Freyer said she had changed up her regular routine and mistakenly gave two inmates methadone doses she had prepared for the next day.
“I got confused, I pulled (the dose) from the cart and double dosed. And it’s five to midnight. You’re running around all night, still giving methadone and it’s almost midnight,” she said.
“There’s no doubt it was a medication error and I didn’t deal with it rationally.”
She said she skipped a team meeting because she needed to read up on the medications she had to give three new patients, including a pregnant woman and an inmate who’d had a kidney transplant.
“I liked to set those people aside because the medication I’m giving them I’m not familiar with so I wanted to do some homework on it. The manager says, ‘I want you at the morning meeting now.’ Well, I didn’t think it appropriate that I go to the morning meeting and leave my work incomplete.”
Scott Forde, the acting president of OPSEU Local 411, which represents workers at OCDC, remembered Freyer as a popular nurse liked by staff and inmates, but one who was frequently in trouble with management because of her strong opinions.
“She challenged (management) because she felt they were asking nurses to do a job that she didn’t think was possible,” Forde said.
“On behalf of the nursing station, I can say that they have been horribly short-staffed for a number of years now. Currently, they’re supposed to have a staff of 25 and they’re at 16.”
“I know that every effort is being made to fix that — largely due to investigations and media pressure — but when we were short staffed as correctional officers, the nurses were in the same boat,” he said.
When the jail is short-staffed with correctional officers, inmates can be confined to their cells to reduce the guards’ workloads. But lockdowns can’t reduce the medical demands on nurses, he said.
“When you are running around double- or triple-dutied it is challenging at best. Our nurses are very professional but the more they’re asked to do in a short time, the likelier they are to make a mistake or to cut corners.”
The Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services has a “robust oversight and investigation process to ensure that staff conduct is appropriate and compliant,” spokesman Andrew Morrison said in an email.
“As part of the ongoing transformation of Ontario’s correctional system, the ministry is improving conditions for both staff and inmates at all correctional facilities. At OCDC, the ministry has hired six new nurses to help alleviate workload pressures,” he said.
If the complaint against Freyer is upheld at the college, she could have her nursing certification suspended or revoked permanently, face reprimand and or be fined up to $35,000.
Freyer, who moved to Alberta to be closer to family and is no longer working, said she doesn’t intend to fight the college.
“Everyone told me I was a target and, by the love of God, they got me.”
bcrawford@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/getBAC
查看原文...
