STORM LAKE, Iowa (story from the IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH) – A northwest Iowa nurse convicted of stealing more than $115,000 worth of property from a home-health patient has agreed to surrender her license.

Earlier this year, the Iowa Board of Nursing charged Clay County Nurse Shari Lee Bents of Royal with committing an act that might adversely affect a patient’s welfare; committing an act that causes physical, emotional or financial injury to a patient; possessing or administering controlled substances without lawful authority; soliciting, borrowing, or misappropriating money or property from a patient, and being convicted of an offense that directly relates to the duties and responsibilities of the profession.

According to the board, from April 2024 to October 2024, Bents was employed by Stay In Home Care & Medical Staffing in the Storm Lake area. On Oct. 24, 2024, she was charged with first-degree theft and ongoing criminal conduct. Prosecutors alleged Bents took more than $115,000 worth of coins and jewelry from a Stay In Home Care patient and then pawned the items. On Feb. 15, 2025, Bents agreed to plead guilty to a charge of felony dependent adult abuse and the charges of theft and ongoing criminal conduct were dismissed.

The board alleges Bents admitted to an Iowa Department of Health and Human Services worker that she stole items from her patient on three separate occasions and that she administered morphine to the patient outside of her scope of practice as a caregiver. Bents’ recent agreement to surrender her license has little practical effect, as she already is incarcerated at the Iowa Correctional Institute for Women where she is serving a five-year sentence on the dependent adult abuse charge.

Iowa Board of Nursing records indicate the board granted Bents a practical nurse’s license in September 2024, months after she first began working at Stay In Home Care. Bents — whose full name is listed in some board records as “Shari-Bents” — faced charges of theft twice in 2016 and twice in 2017. In each of the four cases, the charges were later dismissed.

Other Iowa-licensed nurses recently sanctioned by the board include (in southwest Iowa):

Linda Jay of Clarinda, a licensed practical nurse who in 2024 was charged by the board with committing an act that might adversely affect a patient’s welfare and with failing to properly assess or report a patient’s change in condition. The board alleged that in 2023, while working at a long-term care facility, Jay failed to notify a physician of a patient’s change in condition, and that in February 2024, Jay failed to document a patient’s condition and improperly administered blood pressure medication.

The case was resolved with a $300 civil penalty and Jay agreeing to complete 30 hours of educational training. The board now says Jay recently agreed to surrender her license as part of this same disciplinary case, although the board has yet to make public any records related to that decision.

LeAnn McVay of Fontanelle, a licensed practical nurse who was working at an unspecified long-term care facility in Avoca between 2022 and 2024 when her employer allegedly received complaints she was dismissing residents’ requests for pain-control medications as drug-seeking behavior. The board alleges an investigation also revealed McVay “communicated unprofessionally with a resident’s family member and with colleagues,” including one incident in which she “threw a bag of feed connectors” at a colleague. The board charged McVay with engaging in behavior that is contradictory to professional decorum. As part of a settlement agreement on the disciplinary charge, McVay agreed to accept a warning from the board.