Iowa nurses face sanctions for alleged drug-related violations

The Iowa Board of Nursing has charged several Iowa nurses with regulatory violations related to patient medications.

Melissa L. Winkelmann, 58, of Ottumwa has been formally charged by the board with misappropriating or attempting to misappropriate medications or supplies of a patient or clinic, and with engaging in behavior that is contradictory to professional decorum.

The board has disclosed no information on the conduct that led to the charges other than to say it occurred while Winkelmann was working as an Iowa-licensed registered nurse in Polk County.

State records indicate Winkelmann has been a registered nurse since March 2013. A hearing on the charges is scheduled for Jan. 28, 2027.

Board records indicate the board approved the charges against Winkelmann 11 months ago, in October 2025, although they were only recently made public.

In 2010, the board charged Winkelmann with unethical conduct and habitual intoxication or addiction to drugs. In that case, the board alleged Winkelmann had been convicted of drunken driving in 2006 and sentenced to two days in jail and that in 2010, she was again convicted of drunken driving and again sentenced to two days in jail.

As a result of those disciplinary charges, the board suspended Winkelmann’s nursing license pending the receipt of a chemical dependency evaluation.

Winkelmann is currently facing a felony criminal charge of prohibited acts involving controlled substances. Police records indicate that on May 28, 2025, while working at the On With Life care facility in Polk City, Winkelmann was captured on surveillance footage entering the facility’s medication room and removing a 5-milligram dose of Dronabinol, a Schedule III controlled substance that was not prescribed to any patients in the building.

The video allegedly shows Winkelmann proceeding directly to a locker inside the building’s break room. According to the police reports, Winkelmann said the removal of the medication was a mistake and that she later disposed of the drug outside the facility.

Winkelmann has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charge, and a trial is scheduled for Nov. 2, 2026.

The Iowa Capital Dispatch was not able to reach Winkelmann for comment.

Other Iowa nurses whose disciplinary cases were recently made public by the board:

— Hayley Christine Lee, a licensed practical nurse from Sioux City who is charged by the board with misappropriating or attempting to misappropriate the medications or supplies of a patient or clinic, and with failing to respond to or comply with a board investigation or subpoena. Although the board published the charges against Lee earlier this month, the charging documents indicate the board’s hearing on the matter was scheduled for last month, August 2026.

— Troy R. Beasley, a licensed practical nurse from Des Moines who is charged by the board with committing an act that might adversely affect a patient’s welfare, engaging in behavior that is contradictory to professional decorum, and failing to properly safeguard or secure patient medications. According to the board, the conduct that gave rise to the charges occurred while Beasley was practicing in Elk Horn. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Jan. 28, 2027.

— Nicolette R. Lovitt, an advanced registered nurse practitioner from Coon Rapids. The board has charged Lovitt with engaging in behavior that is contradictory to professional decorum; prescribing, dispensing or distributing drugs in an unsafe manner, and prescribing, dispensing or distributing drugs without accurately documenting it or without assessing the patient.

According to board records, the conduct that gave rise to the charges occurred when Lovitt was working as a registered nurse at Avoca Specialty Care in March 2026. The board alleges that while at work, Lovitt was observed speaking to her daughter over the phone while the phone was in “speaker” mode. The board alleges Lovitt’s daughter indicated she wanted to take certain medications and that in response, Lovitt asked what drugs she’d like to try as she would then “bring home the medications” for her daughter’s use.

Lovitt is also facing disciplinary charges in a separate case initiated by the board’s investigators in 2025. In that case, the board in February 2026 approved charges against Lovitt of deviating from the standards of learning, education, or skill ordinarily possessed by nurses; engaging in behavior that constitutes unethical conduct or practice harmful to the profession, and engaging in unethical conduct or practice harmful or detrimental to the public by violating professional boundaries.

The board has not disclosed any information as to the conduct that gave rise to that particular set of charges.

A board hearing on both sets of charges is currently scheduled for Oct. 16, 2026.

— Susan Latcham, an advanced registered nurse practitioner from Swan. The board alleges that in 2025, Latcham prescribed Retatrutide to a patient and to herself. The board says Retatrutide, which is being investigated for potential use as a weight-loss drug, is in the third phase of clinical trials but has yet to be approved by the FDA. The board charged Latcham with engaging in unethical conduct or practices that are harmful to the public.

The board recently resolved the case by issuing Latcham a warning and requiring her to complete 20 hours of educational training on prescribing practices and 10 hours of educational training on ethics.