BC nurse suspended for 4 months after performing religious ritual on Indigenous client without consent

A nurse in Surrey, British Columbia, has been suspended for four months for performing a religious ritual on an Indigenous client without her consent.

The BC College of Nurses and Midwives said in a notice Friday that Chrisopher Villaflor performed the ritual in June 2021 without regard to his client’s heritage.

The exact nature of the ritual was not defined in the college notice, which says Villaflor voluntarily accepted disciplinary action as part of a consent agreement.

Villaflor has had his license suspended until January and he is banned from being the only nurse on call for a year.

He will also receive remedial training in ethics, cultural safety, trauma-informed care and humility.

The college’s Board of Inquiry said in a statement that it was « satisfied that the conditions [of the agreement] will protect the public. »

Earlier this month, a former West Kelowna nurse was suspended for a month by the college after giving a vulnerable client anti-vaccine information, and a Nanaimo nurse was suspended for asking a colleague to create false vaccination records.