Nurse suspended for over-medicating residents at B.C. care home

A medical stethoscope is seen in this undated image. (Shutterstock)

A British Columbia nurse has been suspended for four weeks for over-medicating residents at a long-term care home, the province’s professional regulator says.

Registered nurse Lyanne Beauchesne of Kamloops entered a consent agreement with the B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives this month, admitting to the misconduct.

The regulator says the agreement was reached between the nurse and the college to “address practice issues that occurred between August 2024 and January 2025.”

The agreement was approved by the college’s inquiry committee on Feb. 20 after the regulator found the nurse had over-medicated care home residents without proper documentation and without “escalating her observations to the prescriber,” according to a notice published by the college.

According to the province’s registry of licensed nurses, Beauchesne works at the Overlander Long-Term Care centre at 953 Southill St. in Kamloops.

The notice did not provide further details about the incidents that prompted the discipline, including the number of patients involved or the types of medications administered.

The regulator says Beauchesne voluntarily agreed to the four-week suspension of her nursing licence, followed by random audits of her medical charts for three months.

“The inquiry committee is satisfied that the terms will address the professional and practice concerns that arose and will protect the public,” the regulator said.

The Interior Health authority, which operates the Overlander care home, says the facility contains 183 publicly funded long-term care beds.

According to a January report from the Office of the Seniors Advocate of B.C., 54.7 per cent of Overlander’s residents in 2024-2025 were routinely taking nine or more medications at a time.

There were 51 fatalities at the care home classified as “expected deaths” in that time period, and five deaths considered “unexpected,” according to the report.

The nurse’s suspension will be in effect from March 1 to March 28, according to the registry.