(Iowa Capital Dispatch) A nurse who landed a job at Iowa’s Shenandoah Medical Center after being fired by four Nebraska hospitals is now facing charges for the alleged theft of controlled substances.
The Iowa Board of Nursing has charged Bailie Anne Preston of Emerson with misappropriating medications or supplies of a patient or agency, and with being involved in the unauthorized possession or use of a controlled substance.
As is customary with Iowa’s licensing board, the Board of Nursing has not specified the alleged conduct that gave rise to the charges or indicated where or when it may have occurred.
However, Nebraska’s Department of Health and Human Services alleged last year that after working as a registered nurse for Nebraska Medicine in Omaha, from January through July of 2023, Preston was fired for failing to respond to a patient with critically low blood pressure, failing to complete her required education, leaving her post for extended periods of time and for unexcused absences.
According to the Nebraska regulators, Preston then went to work for Nebraska Methodist Health System in Omaha. She was allegedly fired from that job in September 2023 after being accused of leaving her post for extended periods of time, failure to complete patient assessments and inadequate patient charting.
Regulators allege that when Preston then applied for a job at Johnson County Hospital in Tecumseh, Nebraska, she stated her reasons for leaving her previous two jobs was “sparse opportunity for growth” and “looking for something closer to my secondary residence.”
While working the Johnson County Hospital’s overnight shift on Dec. 15, 2023, Preston allegedly wrote in a patient’s file that she had twice given the woman morphine for pain. Preston then walked down a hallway where she entered a bathroom, according to regulators. The patient is alleged to have then told one of Preston’s colleagues she had not received any pain medication. The colleague allegedly searched the bathroom where Preston had been and found an empty syringe, regulators reported.
According to Nebraska regulators, Preston then refused the hospital’s request that she submit to a drug screen, asserting that it would reveal the presence of morphine in her system for which she had a prescription. She was subsequently fired, according to regulators.
In May 2024 and June 2024, Nebraska licensing officials attempted to contact Preston by mail, phone and email but, the officials allege, Preston never responded.
With her Iowa nursing license still in place, Preston was able to continue working as a nurse in Nebraska due to the two states’ interstate compact. In October 2024, Nebraska officials allege, Preston went to work at the Community Medical Center in Falls City, Nebraska.
In December 2024, the medical center allegedly inventoried its drug supply and discovered there were four missing vials of Benadryl. The facility concluded Preston was the only person with access to the drug during the relevant time period, and fired Preston for diverting drugs to her own use, Nebraska regulators allege.
In August 2025, with her Iowa nursing license still in effect, Preston was working in Page County, Iowa, at the Shenandoah Medical Center. In early September 2025, she was criminally charged with theft and felony possession of a controlled substance for allegedly stealing one box of injectable morphine sulfate from the Shenandoah Medical Center.
According to the police report, Preston took possession of the morphine while at work and then “hid the item under her clothing, exited the building to go to her vehicle, stashed the vials of morphine in her vehicle and eventually left for the day to go home. The 10 vials of morphine were not recovered, but the box that contained the morphine had been recovered since she discarded it in a dumpster.”
Preston has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges, and a trial is now scheduled for May 26, 2026.
In November 2025, Nebraska state officials charged Preston with unprofessional conduct, failing to cooperate with state investigators, and failing to report her firings within 30 days as required. Preston subsequently agreed to a two-year-minimum revocation of her ability to practice in Nebraska and also agreed to pay a $2,000 civil penalty.
At around the same time that settlement was reached, the Iowa Board of Nursing filed its disciplinary charges against Preston, although those charges were only made public this month.
State records indicate a board hearing on the Iowa disciplinary charges is scheduled for June 30, 2026. Iowa Capital Dispatch was unable to reach Preston for comment.
