After a routine program review by the board of nursing in September, it was discovered that the nursing department had let part-time instructor Mary Beth Lodge teach classes for five years without a license, Madeline Iseli, chief of staff said.
Marcia Miller, chair of the Nursing department, and Associate Provost Gloria Goldman were put on paid leave to avoid conflict of interest, following investigations by the Ohio Board of Nursing and Sinclair Community College, according to Iseli. Goldman had been the current chair when the decision was made to let her stay in 2005.
President Steven L. Johnson made a statement on Oct. 19 that Goldman and Miller resumed their duties in their respective positions on Wednesday, Oct. 20.
The review will be continued in cooperation with the Nursing Board, Isle said. “
“It was determined at this stage in the review that Miller and Goldman could return to their duties without complication to either the review or them,” Iseli said. “Both have been long time employees of Sinclair and have been absolutely respected and valued.”
There are three investigations taking place because of the situation, according to Iseli. An administrative one by Sinclair to see if the women were following Sinclair and state policies, a criminal investigation by Sinclair’s police department and a program investigation by the Ohio Board of Nursing.
Lodge is no longer teaching classes at Sinclair, but her and Miller could face fifth degree felony charges, Iseli said. In Ohio, that offense could carry a prison term of six to 12 months and up to a $2,500 fine, according to www.clelaw.lib.oh.us.
“(Lodge) had been teaching here since 2000, and at that time she was a licensed registered nurse. The classes she has taught have been one credit hour elective courses that would usually be taught on a Saturday,” Iseli said. “Our nursing department made the decision, because she had good student evaluations and the course content was not core to the curriculum, that she could continue teaching those one day courses.”
Lodge taught one class per quarter and it was not part of the core curriculum for the nursing program, according to Iseli. They were special topics classes, NSG 297, and covered adolescent issues, drug and chemical dependency and a conflict resolution course. Any student on campus is able to take one of these classes, according to Iseli.
“Around 2005 (Lodge) informed the nursing chair that she was going to let her Ohio license lapse. She explained that she was no longer a practicing nurse and was doing holistic practice, medical massage, hypnosis; stuff like that,” Iseli said. “She felt that for her teaching and the career path she was following she no longer needed her license.”
Lodge has taught over 450 students at Sinclair without a license, but only six students were affected by it, according to Iseli. Those six students are all planning to graduate this year and will be refunded their money for the class as well as given options to take acceptable substitutes that are suitable to their time, according to Iseli.
Miller was not teaching any classes this quarter and there will be a substitute for the class Lodge was expected to teach.
The college has reached out to area hospitals and associations to make sure that they know Sinclair is doing a full investigation and are being pro-active, according to Iseli. Sinclair’s cumulative passage rate over time with the Ohio Nursing Board is about 98 percent and has been on occasions been 100 percent, according to www.nursing.ohio.gov/education.
“Our nursing program has an outstanding reputation in the area and we want to assure them that this is being taken care of,” Iseli said. “Our program quality has been and will continue to be high.”