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Dismissed Nursing Student Told to Lie to Patients About Vaccines

Story Highlights
  • In 2013, a nursing student at Bakers College in Michigan, Nichole Bruff, was dismissed from the college prior to her graduation for allegedly asking questions when her instructors were teaching students how to coerce patients into getting themselves and their children vaccinated.
  • Bruff asked her instructors to clarify why a patient’s right to make an informed choice and either accept or decline medical procedures was not applied to vaccinations as well.
  • This case makes it clear that patients’ informed consent rights are being eroded and often violated by health care providers when it comes to vaccination.

According to an article in Health Impact News, in 2013 a nursing student at Bakers College in Owosso, MI, Nichole Bruff, was expelled from the college prior to her graduation allegedly for asking questions about the manner in which her instructors were teaching students to lie to patients to encourage them to vaccinate. The dismissal was issued with neither a warning nor an opportunity to appeal the decision, and Bruff learned that the action could mean she may never be accepted to another nursing school.

The questions Bruff posed to her instructors stemmed from her need to clarify why a patient’s right to make an informed choice and either accept or decline medical procedures was not applicable to vaccinations as well. Bruff said that it was a contradiction because the American Nurses Association ethical standards and principles she was taught in the nursing program included respecting the patient’s right to refuse, refraining from coercion and encouraging family-centered care.

Bruff filed a lawsuit on April 6, 2015 against the college in the Circuit Court for the Michigan’s Genese County. According to the complaint, an instructor by the name of Connie Smith told students that they must require pregnant women and their spouses to have the Tdap vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (whooping cough) administered before entering the labor room.

When Ms. Bruff asked why this was necessary since it takes at least four to six weeks for the vaccine to become effective, the instructor stated this was just how it worked. She went on further to say that should expectant mothers and their spouses have any concerns about vaccines, students were required to misrepresent facts about vaccinations to gain patient compliance. Ms. Bruff then asked the instructor why would she have to do this since it goes against the ethical standard of the nursing profession and the legal standard for the patient’s informed consent.

The complaint also mentioned another pediatric instructor, Alysia Osoff, who allegedly told students that all children who are admitted to the hospital had to be updated with all vaccinations prior to being discharged. Bruff questioned the instructor by asking why sick children would be forced to receive vaccinations when the vaccination inserts clearly state that children should not be vaccinated while they are ill. Osoff responded by saying that nursing students should do whatever it takes to get the patient’s compliance even if it meant using threats and scare tactics.

According to Bruff’s attorney, Phillip Ellison, “Obtaining uninformed or false consent for a medical procedure under false pretenses is assault and battery under both criminal and civil law. Under Michigan law, patients have the right to refuse any and all medical treatment, including life saving procedures… If a nursing student uses fraud, no consent was obtained and thus committed a battery.”

This case makes it clear that patients’ informed consent rights are being eroded and often being violated by health care providers when it comes to vaccination.


Read the full article at Student Who Refused to Lie About Vaccines and was Kicked out of Nursing School Fights Back with Lawsuit

5 Responses

  1. Please keep us updated on this lawsuit. I am certain it will not go far as someone will stop it and it will not be published in the media. This girl appears to have a solid case. I do hope a lawyer worth their weight takes this on. The only way we can turn the tide is to take on the small fights that prove this very thing. They are lying about the safety of these drugs.

  2. I’m an RN; this is not unusual. Add it to the fact that nurses and most providers do not understand how the immune system works (bare bones knowledge) and are propagandized to about vaccination from education Day 1. They say what they are told to say.
    Since I feel and know differently, I run the show differently as well (alone with my patient) and will not give any vaccine unless I know the patient WANTS it after I have given them an opt out (I can’t totally talk them out of it or I would). I have a higher rate of “non-compliance” than my co-workers and I also use “contraindicated for patient” on a regular basis. My facility’s policy is that if someone doesn’t remember whether or not they’ve had a vaccination, I’m to give it again. I ALWAYS write “current,” when unsure. FACT: I think I’ve given 3 shots in the last year. Just 3.

  3. I kind of wonder how common this kind of thing is, but uncommon or otherwise, I think it actually undermines the cause of vaccines because it, more than anything else, confirms in parents’ minds that they are being lied to. I’m not anti-vax, but I have some respect for those who are. The only way the medical community can end anti-vaccination sentiment (something I think they want to do) is to be transparent and honest with parents and patients, to give them no reason to distrust their doctors. Deceit is the worst. It destroys trust. Granting patients freedom to choose, honest answers to questions, and transparency will, I think, actually increase vaccination rates in the long run. People balk at being required to vaccinate precisely because they are under so much pressure to do so.

  4. What is MOST disturbing is the fact that this woman is one of perhaps a handful of people who QUESTION what they’ve been told in ‘school’ when it contradicts the supposed ethics of the medical industry ..er…I mean, profession.

    We are all being subjected to double think, keeping contradicting thoughts in our heads and believing they are both true. A lie is a lie no matter in what ‘circumstance’ or ‘context’.

    Why don’t more people have the cojones to stand up and be counted? I applaud Ms. Bruff. I’d want her to be my nurse.

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