Serial killer Elizabeth Wettlaufer's nursing licence could be revoked today

On September 30, 2016, Elizabeth Wettlaufer phoned the College of Nurses of Ontario and described how she intentionally and fatally overdosed eight nursing home residents under her care with insulin. She resigned her licence that day, telling the regulatory body that she wasn't fit to be a registered nurse.

Today, more than nine months later, the college is holding a hearing about Wettlaufer, who is now behind bars. The college's investigation into her conduct as a registered nurse, launched that day in September, was put on pause while the criminal legal proceedings played out.

She pleaded guilty to all of the charges against her and last month she was sentenced in a Woodstock, Ont., courtroom to life behind bars with no chance of parole for 25 years.

Now the college is resuming its proceedings related to Wettlaufer, who is among Canada's most prolific serial killers.

Lawyer Megan Shortreed, representing the college, said Tuesday in opening remarks that the evidence against Wettlaufer will be "overwhelming and obvious."

"This is an unprecedented case," she said to the five-person panel that will adjudicate. "It is difficult to contemplate a case of greater seriousness."

Here is a breakdown of some of the key questions involved today.

A disciplinary hearing will be held at the College of Nurses of Ontario's office in Toronto. It unfolds in a similar manner to a trial. The college is accusing Wettlaufer of professional misconduct and a lawyer for the college will present evidence to a panel of five people to make that case. The panel is comprised of three nurses and two members of the public.

Former nurse Elizabeth Wettlaufer described the killing of patients in her care in a videotaped interview with police in Woodstock, Ont., on Oct. 5, 2016. (Woodstock Police Service)

Witnesses can be called but in this case much of the evidence is expected to be written documentation. Wettlaufer's crimes came to light last fall when she checked herself into the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto on Sept. 16 and began confessing to staff. They notified police. Wettlaufer met with detectives and provided a videotaped confession. She contacted the college on Sept. 30 to resign. CAMH has provided their records to the college.

When nurses are accused of misconduct they can fight the allegations with a lawyer at the hearing. Given that Wettlaufer pleaded guilty it's not likely she will fight the allegations of professional misconduct.

If the panel agrees the nurse is guilty of misconduct the college lawyer then makes submissions for the sanctions. In this case, it's expected the college will argue for Wettlauffer's licence to be revoked. The panel could make a decision about that on the spot, or reserve their decision until a later date.

What's the point of this since she already resigned and is in prison?

Wettlaufer resigned her licence, but it hasn't yet been taken away from her. The college needs to go through this process in order to officially revoke it. If that happens it would be on her record that she is not entitled to practice nursing.

Wettlaufer has been notified the hearing is happening but it's not clear if she will be there in person. She would have had to get a judge's order to get out of prison for it. The college can accommodate defendants by video and phone if they can't be there in person. If someone chooses not to participate, the hearing goes on without them.

Elizabeth Wettlaufer began her nursing career in 1995. She told a doctor treating her last fall that there were restrictions on her licence early on but not many details are known about that. (Facebook)

She confessed, will we learn anything new?

Possibly. Many details of how she carried out her murders are already known because of her confession tape with police but there are details about Wettlaufer's entire career as a nurse that could be revealed.

Documents released by the court showed that Wettlaufer told her doctor that her nursing licence had been restricted early on in her career due to "overdosing on hospital medication while at work." Wettlaufer's first nursing job was at a hospital in northern Ontario, and it would not tell CBC why she left after only three months, citing privacy laws.

This early licence restriction is not part of Wettlaufer's public nursing record and could be discussed at the hearing.

What could also be revealed is what the college did about Wettlaufer when the nursing home where she worked for seven years (and carried out seven murders), notified the college it had fired her. Caressant Care Woodstock fired her in 2014 after she repeatedly made mistakes with medication.

Caressant Care is the nursing home in Woodstock, Ont., where serial killer Elizabeth Wettlaufer, committed seven of eight murders. (Dave Chidley/Canadian Press)

It's not known how the college handled that mandatory notification. It's said it can't answer questions about it because of privacy-related stipulations of the Regulated Health Professions Act. But exceptions can be made when evidence is being presented at a disciplinary hearing so this could be the first opportunity to learn more about the college's interactions with Wettlaufer.

The college may not get too in-depth however, because the Ontario government did call a public inquiry into Wettlaufer and that's where the college will likely be called on to explain in detail what it knew and when about Wettlaufer's performance as a nurse.