Nurse gets reprimand
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Monday, July 4, 2016
NUNAVUT
Nunavut nurse Heather Hackney, who had responsibility for nurses in the South Baffin region at the time three-month-old infant Makibi died in Cape Dorset in 2012, has been formally reprimanded, with a five-year restriction placed on her nursing licence.
Hackney, former director of health services for South Baffin, was identified as one of 14 key players by lawyer Katherine Peterson in her external review of the tragic death, titled A Journey Through Heartache.
On May 27, Hackney and the Registered Nurses Association of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut arrived at a settlement agreement, said Donna Stanley-Young, the executive director of the association.
Speaking with Nunavut News/North, Stanley-Young outlined the terms and conditions placed on Hackney's nursing licence.
For a period of five years, Hackney cannot apply for or permanently hold these positions:
- a nurse in charge position in a community health centre in the Northwest Territories or Nunavut,
- a supervisor of community health programs in a community in the Northwest Territories or Nunavut, or
- a director of nursing position in the Northwest Territories or Nunavut, or
- any position with an equivalent or greater level of seniority or responsibility to the positions described.
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These conditions were ordered by the association's board of inquiry which, according to association bylaws, is made of up three members of the association's professional conduct committee, as assigned by the association's board.
Peterson, who also referred to Hackney as "district supervisor" in her report, outlined several bureaucratic failures in the death of Makibi.
"The failure to conduct a timely and appropriate investigation regarding the death of Baby Makibi likely arises as a result of: The failure by responsible bureaucrats to properly report/investigate the death in accordance with the Community Health Administration Guidelines; the failure of communication between the district supervisor, South Baffin and regional office; the failure to respond to known difficulties existing in the operation of the Cape Dorset Health Centre, which facts were known by the regional office and district supervisor, South Baffin in 2012 prior to the death of Baby Makibi."
Along with the restrictions to Hackney's licence, Stanley-Young said, "part of the terms and conditions of that settlement agreement is she is required to complete course work and a reflective practice paper. In this particular case, an ethics course."
The course is not Nunavut-specific.
Stanley says it would be "almost impossible" to find an ethics course specific to one region.
In addition, a permanent letter of reprimand was placed on Hackney's registration file, said Stanley-Young.
The settlement resulted from mediation, rather than a disciplinary hearing.
Hackney is a community health nurse in Iglulik, according to the Government of Nunavut staff website,
Meanwhile, the nurse at the heart of the scandal, Deborah McKeown, is seeking a judicial review in the Nunavut Court of Justice to have the suspension of her nursing licence quashed.
McKeown's licence was suspended by the Registered Nurses Association of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut in May 2014 as a result of an investigation into a complaint.
In her report, Peterson remarks that McKeown failed to follow Government of Nunavut policies that "mandate an in-person assessment of infants under the age of one year," while making it clear that she does not have "the expertise to conclude whether this (an in-person assessment rather than a phone assessment) would or would not have resulted in the survival of Baby Makibi."
