(Iowa Capital Dispatch) Almost two years after the State of Nebraska revoked a nurse’s ability to practice there for posing a “significant risk to public safety,” Iowa’s Board of Nursing has agreed to accept the nurse’s surrender of her license to practice in Iowa.
The decision by the Iowa board comes after Brandy Wicks, a registered nurse from Treynor, was accused of stealing patient medications from a hospital, a home-hospice program and at least two nursing homes, and after her indictment on 11 federal criminal charges.
Records from Nebraska’s Division of Public Health show that Wicks’ ability to practice nursing in that state was revoked in October 2024. The division alleged that in 2023, Wicks was working with patients at Nebraska Medicine’s trauma center when she charted that she had given a patient oxycodone, which the patient later denied receiving. A subsequent audit allegedly revealed that over 15 days, there were 52 discrepancies in medication records involving 17 patients cared for by Wicks. According to division records, Wicks was fired from Nebraska Medicine.
The division also alleges Wicks worked for a Council Bluffs hospice agency, St. Croix Hospice, when a patient’s spouse noticed morphine pills were missing after Wicks had visited. After the spouse inquired about the missing drugs, Wicks allegedly went back to the patient’s home and returned the drugs, saying they must have fallen off a table unnoticed into her bag.
Wicks later failed to appear for a hearing on licensing charges, according to Nebraska state records. A hearing officer, Robert E. Harkins, revoked Wicks’ ability to practice in Nebraska, stating that her actions were “serious, and constitute a significant risk to public safety.” The decision was affirmed by the chief medical officer of Nebraska’s Division of Public Health.
Wicks retained her license to practice in Iowa, although in April 2025, the Iowa Board of Nursing charged her with misappropriating or attempting to misappropriate medications, failing to properly document or perform the disposal of medications, and failing to properly safeguard or secure medications.
That case stemmed from allegations that Wicks had been working at an unspecified acute care hospital in 2023 when she admitted to pulling controlled and noncontrolled medications from the electronic medication dispensing machine and placing the drugs in drawers in patient rooms for administration at a later time. The board also alleged Wicks pulled a dose of oxycodone out of the medication dispensing machine and documented administering the drug to a patient who later said they never received it.
To resolve the matter, Wicks agreed to a settlement that allowed her to keep her Iowa license, although it was placed on probationary status for two years.
The Iowa board now alleges that in January 2026, with her Iowa license on probation, Wicks landed a job working as a nurse at Chapters Living, an assisted living center in Council Bluffs, where she later was fired after being accused of stealing medications. According to the board, Wicks then began working at Oakland Manor, an Iowa nursing home. Wicks later admitted to local and state investigators that she had stolen medications while employed at Oakland Manor, the board alleges.
Wicks recently agreed to surrender her Iowa nurse’s license with the understanding she can apply for reinstatement after one year.
That agreement followed a May 19, 2026, federal grand jury indictment charging Wicks with eight counts of tampering with consumer products and three counts of acquiring controlled substances by subterfuge or fraud.
According to prosecutors, Wicks replaced patients’ narcotic painkillers, oxycodone and hydrocodone, with vitamins or Tylenol in January 2026. In February and March 2026, prosecutors alleged, she replaced other patients’ oxycodone with vitamins or an antihistamine. Those alleged incidents involve medications for at least seven different patients, according to prosecutors.
The indictment also accuses Wicks of obtaining a hospice patient’s morphine through subterfuge or fraud in July 2022.
Wicks has pleaded not guilty to all of the criminal charges, and the case is currently scheduled for trial in November 2026.
The Iowa Capital Dispatch was not able to locate Wicks for comment, but last year she told the Capital Dispatch, “I have never taken medications from a patient, ever.”
