(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
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Nurse keeps her license after testing positive for meth at nursing home • Iowa Capital Dispatch [1]
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Date: 2025-05-08
An Iowa nursing home worker who tested positive for methamphetamine at work will keep her license but will be required to submit to chemical screening.
In July 2024, the Iowa Board of Nursing charged Lacy Dencklau, 45, with unethical conduct or a practice harmful to the public — specifically the use of methamphetamine. Last month, the board resolved the case by placing Dencklau’s license on probation for one year.
Dencklau said Wednesday she was working at Friendship Manor in Fort Dodge in January 2024 when she was asked to submit to a drug test that produced a positive result for methamphetamine. As a result of that test, she was fired, she said. “I don’t know how the drug got into my system because I have never used drugs,” Dencklau said.
The board’s publicly posted investigator’s notes on the case indicate Friendship Haven’s director of human resources told board investigators Dencklau had “not been acting right” in December 2023, and was sent home and given the week off after medication errors were made.
The records indicate resident medications had been documented as having been administered, although the drugs were later found still in their packaging. Dencklau had also failed to report or document a resident’s fall, according to the documents.
After her time off, Dencklau returned to work at Friendship Manor, but “did not remember that day at work,” the report states and so she was given a drug test that indicated no illicit drugs were present in her system. On Monday, Jan. 29, 2024, Dencklau arrived late for work at Friendship Manor “and was posting erratic social media posts” and texting random photos to colleagues, the investigative report states.
Dencklau was immediately given a urine test and the results were positive for methamphetamine. Dencklau later told investigators she spoke to a bartender who told her she had seen an individual put something in Dencklau’s soft drink days before the test, which Dencklau said could explain the positive result.
Board records indicate that on Feb. 2, 2024, Dencklau was fired from Friendship Manor, where she had worked for 20 years, due to the drug test. The same month, she took a nursing job at Rotary Senior Living in Eagle Grove, according to board records and court documents.
On April 10, 2025, the Iowa Board of Nursing agreed to settle its case against Dencklau by placing her license on probation for one year, during which time she will have to work with a case manager, submit to chemical screening and follow any recommendations for treatment.
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