Shoplifting nurse?

The arrest of a Jamaican registered nurse (RN) earlier this year on a charge of shoplifting while she was participating in a government-to-government exchange training project in Florida, has reportedly cast a pall of uncertainty over the programme.

The item she has been accused of stealing cost less than US$100.

Sources close to the saga have told The Sunday Gleaner that the actions of the RN, who is employed to the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), have left the Jamaican authorities terribly embarrassed and may put in jeopardy a training programme that has benefited several of the island's nurses.

The Ministry of Health failed to respond to Sunday Gleaner queries, however, Merl Riley, acting registrar at the Nursing Council of Jamaica, confirmed the incident.

"The council was just informed that this took place, but we don't have any other information," she said before directing The Sunday Gleaner to speak with Dr Leila McWhinney-Dehaney, chief nursing officer in the Ministry of Health.

Questions emailed to Stephanie Shaw Smith, public relations and communications manager in the health ministry, on Thursday, were not answered.

training course

However, it's reported that the accused was on an accident and emergency (A&E) training course at the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Florida when the alleged shoplifting incident took place.

The source also claimed that the arrested RN had two accomplices who were not caught by the American cops.

According to Sunday Gleaner sources, the Ministry of Health was embarrassed by the incident because it had spearheaded arrangements with the Florida-based hospital to facilitate the training. At the same time, Riley also disclosed that an official in the health ministry informed the council of the early-May shoplifting incident about two weeks ago.

The acting registrar also corroborated the claim that the implicated nurse would be fired from the government service if she is convicted on the petty-theft charge.

Riley pointed to the staff orders that govern employment in the public service, which she said prescribed automatic dismissal if an employee of the State is convicted of a crime.

"It is in the staff orders and so it will apply," she said. However, the acting registrar made it clear that the council was not actively investigating the matter, because the nurse is yet to face her accusers.

In addition to embarrassing Jamaica, the shoplifting allegation has blemished the record of Jamaicans who travel to America on J-1 visas.

Information from the US Department of State's official J-1 visa website said the non-immigrant travel document allows approved foreign nationals to participate in work and study-based exchange visitor programmes.

Last month, as a part of the WikiLeaks series carried by The Gleaner, it was reported that several diplomatic cables from the United States Embassy in Kingston spoke positively about Jamaican students who were granted J-1 visas. The Americans noted that, because of their track record, the percentage of applicants granted visas was higher than most other categories of visa applicants.

According to one diplomatic cable dated December 2009, a validation study on Jamaican applicants who received student visas (J-1 visas) between May and August 2009, conducted by the US Embassy's Fraud Prevention Unit, "showed that virtually every J-1 summer-work

and travel-programme participant returned to Jamaica".

A UHWI nurse said questions had now been raised over whether Jackson Memorial Hospital would want to accept any more Jamaicans, because "the incident had caused a big hullabaloo over there".

The picture of one Natalie Clarke has been listed on at least two Florida-based websites with databases displaying mugshots of alleged offenders in the US. Clarke was booked on May 3, 2011 and charged with petty theft, which involves an item or items totalling US$100 or less. Her bond was US$250. One of the websites, Florida Mugshots, noted that the RN was a resident of Belmont District, Lawrence Tavern, St Andrew, Jamaica.

She was arrested at the Westshore Plaza in Hillsborough by the Tampa Police Department, and returned to Jamaica a few days later.

It is reported that the accused nurse missed her court date and, as a result, US authorities contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade. But an official from the foreign affairs and foreign trade ministry denied that the ministry was contacted.

- Tyrone Reid

tyrone.reid@gleanerjm.com