Report into fired N.L. nurse ‘sickening’ says family of LTC resident photographed in vulnerable state

WARNING: This story contains allegations of verbal abuse and strong language.

A family member of a long-term care resident in central N.L. who was photographed in a vulnerable state says the nurse she believes was responsible should have faced a stronger penalty.

“They should never get a licence back, that’s for sure,” said Sheila Reid. “There should be more to it than what [it] was. To me, that’s a slap on the wrist.”

In 2022, the health authority informed Reid that a photo was taken of her cousin, Reg Regular. She was his next-of-kin.

Regular became a resident of the long-term care unit of the Baie Verte Peninsula Health Centre after suffering a stroke. He died in December 2021, before the photo in question came to light.

Reid believes that the image referred to in a recent N.L. College of Nurses decision is the photo of her cousin, though the resident was not identified.

Trina Noble was recently found guilty of professional misconduct and conduct deserving of sanction and her licence was suspended for six months.

Noble was a licensed practical nurse (LPN) in Baie Verte for 19 years, but hasn’t worked in that role since initially losing her job in September 2022.

The N.L. College of Nurses, which is the licensing body for the profession in the province, made its decision on June 10.

In a decision summary posted on the college website on July 23, the college said the allegation against Noble was that she “had taken a photo of a resident of Baie Verte Peninsula Health Care Centre… in a vulnerable state, and forwarded it to a colleague together with inappropriate text messages.”

WATCH | ‘That is not a penalty, that is a joke,’ Regular’s cousin says:

Family says nurse found guilty of misconduct in Baie Verte escaped with ‘slap on the wrist’

A nurse in central Newfoundland has been found guilty of professional misconduct and conduct deserving of sanction by the province’s college of nurses. But the family of the man who was allegedly photographed naked by licensed practical nurse Trina Noble says the level of punishment doesn’t line up. The CBC’s Bernice Hillier reports.

According to the college’s website, an adjudication tribunal accepted an agreed statement of facts and a joint submission on the penalty from the college’s legal council and a representative for Noble.

In addition to her licence being suspended for six months, if Noble wants to work again as an LPN, she must complete education in a number of areas, including the college’s code of ethics, nurse-client relationships, as well as social media use.

Noble must also pay $4,000 to cover part of the costs incurred by the college in her case.

The college’s director of professional conduct review says the college posts its decisions online to uphold its responsibility to the public.

“The publication of these things is to build trust in the public, knowing that we are transparent in those processes and that we do disclose where there has been transgressions by any registrant,” said Brenda Carroll, who declined to discuss specifics of the case.

Case dates back to 2022

The college’s decision is the latest development related to a scandal that put long-term care in Baie Verte in the spotlight. 

In the fall of 2022, Central Health acknowledged seven privacy breaches involving residents at the Baie Verte Peninsula Health Centre. Two families told CBC News that officials told them inappropriate photos of their loved ones — residents at the facility — had been taken by staff. The health authority did not provide details about the nature of the breaches.

The health authority started an investigation and referred the matter to the RCMP. The RCMP concluded its investigation in the spring of 2023, and no charges were laid.

CBC checked back with the RCMP last week in preparation for this story, and was told that “police determined that the reported materials did not meet the threshold for criminal charges.”

Verbal abuse, use of foul language alleged

An arbitration ruling in the fall of 2025 reveals more details about Noble’s case.

After Noble was let go from her job in the fall of 2022, she filed a grievance to seek reinstatement. 

But an arbitrator ruled against her.

In his ruling, arbitrator James Oakley examined four different incidents of alleged misconduct by Noble.

Two of them related to her manner of speaking to or about people in her care, and one related to an audio recording that was allegedly made of long-term care resident in a manic state.

Oakley’s decision says the “two incidents that demonstrated verbal abuse of a vulnerable resident” included “use of foul language and disrespect.” The arbitration decision quotes from a letter sent to Noble by Central Health, which refers to statements she was alleged to have made.

In one instance, she allegedly told a client, “I don’t have time for this bullshit.”

A witness also said Noble was heard remarking to a resident she was changing that he had no difficulty taking out his penis and urinating but he couldn’t turn over. She also was accused of using the F-word in front of the resident.

The fourth, and what the arbitrator called the most serious of the incidents, involved a photograph of a long-term care resident sitting in a wheelchair who did not appear to be wearing clothes, although part of his body was obscured by the wheelchair.

According to the arbitrator, the photo was accompanied by a text message exchange that was captured in a screenshot:

“This AO was a piece of work tonight!”

“Clean pamper tore off and thrown out in hallway”

The person who replied to the message said: “That Shithead needs a 1 way trip to the Waterford and to fall out of the ambulance otw.”

Noble’s alleged response was, “Lol, he sure do!!” 

“There was no professional reason to take and share the photo or to make the disrespectful comments in the text messages,” the arbitrator wrote.

The arbitrator said the four incidents combined show that Noble’s employer had “reasonably lost trust” in her, and that “the employment relationship is irreparably damaged.”

Relative says report was ‘sickening’

Sheila Reid was the cousin and next-of-kin for Reg Regular. (CBC)

Reid said she has read the 55-page arbitration report, and found it very upsetting, as she says details about the photo in the report match up with the description the RCMP gave her of the photo of her cousin.

“Disgusting. Sickening. I felt like I was going to be sick,” said Reid. “I feel like I’m back to the first day when I got that first phone call [from Central Health], only worse because then we didn’t know the whole story.”

The arbitrator’s decision quotes from a letter sent by Noble in September 2022 to what was then the College of Licensed Practical Nurses. In the letter, she acknowledged with regret that she had sent the photo, although she said she did not recall doing it.

In the letter, she wrote:  “In sending the picture of the resident my intent was never to harm the resident and I did not clearly think through the risk of breaching his privacy.”

“I do regret making this mistake and apologize for my wrong doings,” wrote Noble in the letter to the college.

However, through the arbitration process, Noble later changed her story and denied that she took or shared the photo.

She testified in the arbitration hearing that she had made the admission of guilt on the basis of advice from her union representative.

The arbitrator, however, did not accept her account of the incidents.

He said that her denial of responsibility and a lack of apology were things that he took into consideration. 

He said another aggravating factor was the fact that media reports from the time had caused the public to be concerned about the well-being of family members entrusted to the care of the health-care centre.

Noble would not agree to a recorded interview, but CBC spoke with her briefly last week.

She would not respond to questions about whether she took the photo, and why she said she took the photo and then changed her story. Nor would she say whether she would like to work as an LPN again.

In the ruling, the adjudicator noted that Noble blamed a toxic workplace environment, that there were bad feelings that remained after some employees were put off work because they were not vaccinated for COVID, and that another employee targeted her and pinned the blame for the photo on her, because she was interested in a position with community health that another nurse wanted.

The arbitration report also notes testimony from Noble that, prior to September 2022, she had faced no prior discipline, had received a safety award for reporting an error in medication labelling, and had supervised nursing students.

Noble is no longer employed in health care. She declined to comment when asked if she was considering a lawsuit. 

Robby Ash, a lawyer who has acted on Noble’s behalf, contacted CBC last week to state that his client is not connected to any other allegation of misconduct beyond the ones referenced in publicly available documents.

Noble told CBC she may share her account of what happened by writing a book.

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