B.C.’s College of Nurses and Midwives has for a second time disciplined a Vancouver nurse after finding she committed professional misconduct in having an inappropriate relationship with a patient.
In a June 10 public notice, the college said it had approved a consent agreement between BCCNM and Sherri Hedberg of Langley to address conduct issues that occurred between 2004 and 2005.
“During this time period, Ms. Hedberg engaged in and maintained an inappropriate personal relationship with a vulnerable youth patient with mental health and substance use issues,” the notice said.
The college said breaches of professional boundaries in the nurse/client relationship where nurses engage in inappropriate relationships with vulnerable patients is professional misconduct of the most serious nature.
“It is conduct that harms patients and erodes trust in the profession,” the notice said.
Hedberg was banned from practice for five years after a July 2023 finding she had been involved in an intimate relationship with a vulnerable patient.
The college found that Hedberg permitted the client to stay overnight at her home; on separate occasions, permitted his family member stay at her home; cooked and shared meals; and engaged in other inappropriate physical contact.
The lawsuit
Hedberg is one of several defendants named in a lawsuit filed by a man who alleged sexual abuse as a teen as a result of being hospitalized.
The claim said the plaintiff, identified only as A.C.M. of Vancouver, suffered from depressive symptoms and began abusing substances. including alcohol and marijuana in the wake of his mother’s and grandfather’s deaths in 1998 when he was 11 years old.
In April 2004, he was admitted first to UBC Hospital and then to BC Children’s Hospital for treatment of his concurrent depressive and anxiety symptoms and substance abuse with suicidal ideation. He was discharged on May 31, 2004, according to the court documents.
He was re-admitted to BC Children’s that September, where he remained until the end of October.
The claim said Hedberg was a nurse at BC Children’s Hospital and part of A.C.M.’s care team.
It said A.C.M. was in a “position of utmost vulnerability particularly considering his previous sexual inexperience and his mental health conditions.” The claim asserted Hedberg “exploited her position as his treating nurse to access his private information and by which time she had already bonded with him and groomed him for sexual abuse.”
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
The college is one of 18 regulatory bodies empowered under the Health Professions Act to regulate health professions in B.C. It regulates the practice of four distinct professions: nursing, practical nursing, psychiatric nursing and midwifery.
Similar legislation in other self-regulated areas such as the legal and notary public professions also allows citizens to know about discipline issues in the public interest.
The inquiry committee said it was satisfied that the terms would protect the public.
