By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
The Oregon State Board of Nursing on Wednesday voted to fine a newly elected member of the Yachats Rural Fire Protection District $5,000 for claiming in the Lincoln County voters pamphlet that she was a registered nurse.
The board found that the voters pamphlet statements last May by A’lyce Ruberg saying she was a nurse and had an advanced nursing degree violated Oregon law. The law prohibits anyone from practicing nursing or indicating they are a nurse without a state-approved license.
The unanimous vote starts a civil penalty process. Ruberg can request a hearing within 30 days to contest the fine. If she does not, the board will take final action at its November or December meeting to have the state begin a collections process.
It is Ruberg’s second run-in with the Oregon State Board of Nursing. In 2017 the board denied Ruberg a nursing license because its investigators said she failed to disclose her criminal history in California, provided false information while applying for hospital jobs, falsely claimed to have an emergency medical technician certificate from Louisiana, and failed to disclose a medical condition that could have prevented her from safely practicing as a nurse.
Ruberg, 50, was elected by a wide margin to the five-member fire district board in May. She was the only one in her three-way race to submit information to Lincoln County for its voters pamphlet.
In the voters pamphlet she listed her occupation as a nurse, that she had a masters degree in nursing and had worked for two California fire agencies, including as an emergency medical services supervisor.
Ruberg, who has lived in her parents’ Yachats house for about 10 years, has never been a nurse in Oregon or California, where she grew up and went to college. Her only medical education was 10 months of courses at Pioneer Pacific College, a for-profit school in Springfield, Ore. In her Oregon nursing license application she provided EMT certificate numbers that did not belong to her, the state said in its 2017 license denial.
In addition to her voters pamphlet claims, Ruberg’s Linkedin profile on the internet says she is a nurse with Samaritan Health Services in Lincoln City. She is not.
The State Board of Nursing is the state agency responsible for licensing, regulating and disciplining certain types of health care providers and nurses in Oregon.
In its proposed order posted online Thursday, the board said Ruberg used the titles for a licensed practice nurse and registered nurse without having earned a nursing degree or obtaining an LPN or RN license. It also said she falsely stated in the voters pamphlet that she had a master’s degree in nursing. The board also said its investigator interviewed a witness who said Ruberg said she was licensed as a nurse practitioner in another state and was able to write prescriptions in Oregon.
The board said the false claims are a violation of the state’s Nurse Practice Act and voted unanimously to levy the maximum penalty allowed — $5,000.
No Elections Division investigation, yet
It is also a felony in Oregon to make a false statement in required portions of a state or county voters’ pamphlet.
But the Oregon Elections Division has not opened an investigation into her statement because the only complaint it has received so far was an anonymous letter saying Ruberg had lied about her credentials. That letter was sent in August to the Yachats fire district and YachatsNews.com. The fire district, on the advice of its attorney, passed the letter onto the elections division.
The division does not investigate anonymous complaints, director Steve Trout said Thursday.
“We will investigate any false claim, but we are complaint driven,” Trout told YachatsNews. “As soon as we get a complaint we’ll act … as long as it’s a registered voter and it’s not anonymous.”
If it investigates and finds evidence of wrongdoing, Trout said, his agency turns that information over to the Oregon Department of Justice for prosecution.
Ruberg did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Since taking office in July, Ruberg has attended only one of six Yachats fire board meetings.
Frankie Petrick, the fire district chief and administrator, said Tuesday that she had not heard from Ruberg since notifying her of the letter in August and finding the state’s two-year-old denial of her nursing license application online.
The Yachats Fire Board does not have a policy to disqualify members who are not excused from meetings for an extended time, nor does it have a policy to remove board members should they run afoul of any state laws. Other than a resignation, Petrick told the board this month that the only recourse would appear to be a special recall election, which would have to be initiated by the public.