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A suspended nurse who stole a colleague’s identity to gain access to drugs was in charge of looking after seniors and their medications at three personal care homes.
According to documents, Sasheen Guest worked four shifts in 2014 while not registered to practice. Court records said Guest worked at Holy Family Home in Winnipeg, The Emerson Personal Care Home and Salem Home in Winkler.
While under a voluntary suspension of her membership, the College of Registered Nurses said she stole the identity of a registered nurse she knew, for the sole purpose of gaining narcotics and employment. That legitimate nurse went by a different name in her day to day life, which is how the college believes Guest was able to pull this off. Guest even went as far as applying to vital statistics to change her name to that of the other nurse.
Immediately the college said employers noticed drugs were missing, and according to court records, in one case Guest was falling asleep at work. The college was notified and Winnipeg police were called. Katherine Stansfield, executive director with the college, said when a member is unregistered that information is provided to all health care facilities in Manitoba.
“I think this is a case where we did everything we could as we heard about it, because again of the circumstances being so unusual,” Stansfield added.
this particular twist was quite unusual and frankly the employer was also aware and did act very quickly when there were practice issues that came forward, brought it to the attention of the college and then we we’re able to do our investigational work and uncover the full story.”
Following a hearing earlier this year, the college cancelled Guest’s nursing registration and fined her $10,000.
Guest also pleaded guilty in May 2015 in court to three counts of identity fraud with intent to gain advantage. She received four months house arrest and 18 months probation.
During her sentencing, she told court she lost her mom to cancer and at the same time another family member was going through a health scare. She said she was depressed and needed money to care for her family. Guest described her life at the time as a toxic downward spiral and called her actions completely impulsive and irrational.
The college said no patients were injured because of Guest’s actions.
The personal care home in Winnipeg, Holy Family Home, is funded by the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.
In a statement the WRHA said while it wasn’t part of the investigation it expects checks and balances in place to be used.
“We are aware, some of our funded agencies, like Holy Family Home, do use nursing agencies in order to staff relief shifts. However… in the case where a nursing agency is used to fill a shift, we would rely upon that agency to review and verify the credentials and licensing of the individual they provide to fill the shift.”