Insensitive nurse struck off

Saturday 6 October 2012

A NURSE who told a dying dementia patient it was "time for the big sleep" has been struck off.

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Melissa Clark

Shiona Nelson made the comment in front of the woman's relatives, one of whom fled the room in tears.

Nelson, from Kirkcaldy, Fife, was in charge of training young nurses in a care home in the town. Following a disciplinary hearing in Edinburgh, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) said her behaviour was "wholly unacceptable" and that she was unfit to practise.

The experienced nurse was charged by the NMC with making the inappropriate comment to the woman, known only as Patient B, in 2009 at Adam House care home.She faced four other charges, which were also found proven, including allowing a student nurse to practise taking blood samples from the patient.Nelson also carried out an intimate examination on another patient which was not clinically justified and happened without the supervision of a doctor.The hearing was told Nelson had been registered as a nurse since April 1983 and was responsible for mentoring all student nurses at Adam House.Emma Taylor, a Dundee University student who was being mentored by Nelson, told the hearing: "Patient B was in a poor condition with a chest infection and dementia. She was very elderly. Nelson said to her, 'It's time for the big sleep'. "The family were already upset because she was quite poorly. Her granddaughter ran out of the room crying."Ms Taylor was asked by the NMC case presenter, Yusuf Segovia, what she thought about the words used.She said: "It was insensitive. The family were upset and did not want to hear it."Asked what she thought Nelson meant by the comment, she explained: "Just that it's time to die, really."In its written judgment on the case, the NMC stated: "It is ... wholly unacceptable, in the panel's view, for Ms Nelson to comment as she did, to a patient who was seriously ill and in receipt of end-of-life care. "This comment was made by an experienced nurse, in the presence of the patient's next- of-kin. This was made at a vulnerable time and they were quite clearly distressed and upset by it."The panel also found the charge of performing an intimate examination of an elderly patient with no clinical justification to be an "extremely serious matter."Nelson, who was neither present nor represented at the hearing, was suspended from the care home on November 19, 2009 for her misconduct and officially resigned on December 30, 2009.The home was at the time run by the biggest care-home operator in the UK, Southern Cross Healthcare, but when the company ran into financial difficulties Four Seasons Healthcare took it over.

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Families

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Insensitive nurse struck off

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