Surrey nurse suspended for performing religious ritual on Indigenous patient

A BC nurse has had his license suspended after he performed a religious ritual on an Indigenous patient without their consent.

Christopher Villaflor of Surrey will have his nursing registration suspended for four months, and is prohibited from being the sole nurse on duty for a year, according to a notice from the BC College of Nurses and Midwives.

Villaflor will also have to do remedial education in ethics, trauma-informed care, cultural safety, and humility, in addition to having to follow a mentor in the workplace for one year.

The college didn’t say what the religious ritual was, only saying that the incident happened in June 2021. It was performed in a public setting “without informed consent, and without consideration of the client’s Indigenous heritage.”

Villaflor was a Licenced Practical Nurse and his license suspension began on September 23, 2022.

Another BC nurse was recently been suspended for attempting to fake a vaccination record and giving a patient edibles, and another was suspended for over-reporting hours worked and stealing N95 masks.