Suspended BC nurse had relationship with another vulnerable patient

A BC nurse, who had an inappropriate personal relationship with a young vulnerable client 20 years ago, has been reprimanded.

According to a June 10 BC College of Nurses and Midwives decision, former registered nurse Sherri Hedberg had a relationship with a client who had mental health and substance use issues in 2004 and 2005.

The regulator gives very little information about what took place 20 years ago and gives no details about what took place during the inappropriate relationship.

“BC College of Nurses and Midwives considers that breaches of professional boundaries in the nurse/client relationship where nurses engage in inappropriate relationships with vulnerable patients in their care is professional misconduct of the most serious nature,” the decision reads. “It is conduct that harms patients and erodes trust in the profession.”

This is the second time the Langley-based nurse has been reprimanded for having an “inappropriate personal relationship” with a client. In 2023, Hedburg was banned from nursing for five years for having an “emotionally intimate relationship” with a vulnerable patient.

Hedberg signed a consent agreement admitting to her behaviour.

The nursing regulator says that as she has already been barred for five years, and will need to prove she has the requirements of “fitness, competence, and good character” to be reinstated, it would not add any further sanctions.