A licensed practical nurse accused of stealing painkillers meant for nursing home residents at two different Iowa facilities has agreed to give up her nursing license, the state board disclosed this week.
Jaci Moore, 33, of Preston, surrendered her LPN license under a settlement the Iowa Board of Nursing accepted this month, Iowa Capital Dispatch first reported Nov. 5, 2026. Under the deal, Moore can petition to get her license back after one year — a notably different outcome than the outright revocations the board has handed down in other Iowa drug-diversion cases this fall.
Two facilities, two theft cases
The board’s disciplinary record ties Moore to theft allegations at two separate care facilities. Waterloo police charged her in June 2025 with third-degree theft after accusing her of taking medication from a care facility in the city. A second, separate criminal case out of Linn County accused Moore of taking oxycodone from residents while she worked at a Cedar Rapids-area nursing home in January 2025 — and of trying to cover her tracks by altering the facility’s narcotics log to make the missing doses look accounted for.
Moore pleaded guilty in July 2026 to third-degree theft and to a felony count of prohibited acts involving a controlled substance. A judge handed her a deferred judgment on both counts, according to the Capital Dispatch — an outcome that lets a defendant avoid a formal conviction on her record if she completes probation, though the underlying admission of guilt stands.
The board’s case took longer than the criminal one
The Iowa Board of Nursing filed its first disciplinary charges against Moore in January 2026, while her criminal cases were still pending. It added a second round of charges in September 2026, this time built directly on her guilty pleas. This month’s settlement resolves both sets of charges at once: Moore gives up her license now, with the door open to ask for it back in a year, rather than fighting the charges at a contested hearing.
The Capital Dispatch reported it was unable to reach Moore for comment on the settlement.
Why this matters for nurses
I’ve carried the narcotics key on night shift, and the detail that jumps out here isn’t the theft itself — drug diversion among nurses is a documented, if uncomfortable, occupational hazard, and most boards know it. It’s the narcotics log. Altering that record doesn’t just cover up a theft; it tells the next nurse on shift that the count is clean when it isn’t, and it tells surveyors and investigators that nothing happened when something did. That’s the piece of this case that should worry colleagues more than the diversion charge itself: a falsified log is a patient-safety problem that outlives the shift it happened on.
It’s also worth sitting with how different Moore’s outcome looks next to other Iowa nurses the board has sanctioned this fall over drug-related conduct — a reinstatement-eligible surrender here, compared with outright revocation in cases involving exposed used needles or a second drug-related finding elsewhere in the state’s recent disciplinary record. Boards weigh prior history and cooperation as much as the underlying conduct. This appears to be Moore’s first disciplinary finding; others weren’t so fortunate.
This is a civil licensing settlement, not a new criminal filing. Moore’s underlying criminal cases concluded with guilty pleas and deferred judgments in July 2026, which keep a formal conviction off her record only if she completes probation.