Nurse Cautioned After Roughly Handling Care-Home Resident, UK

Main Category: Litigation / Medical Malpractice
Also Included In: Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 12 Aug 2007 - 1:00 PDT

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A Cleveland nurse, Anthony Brewer has been cautioned for marching an elderly resident to his room and pushing him onto his bed and failing to disclose previous convictions when applying for the position at the home.

A Panel of the Nursing and Midwifery Council's (NMC) Professional Conduct Committee, found that Mr Brewer's roughly handled the resident and that this broke the NMC's Code of Professional Conduct which requires nurses to promote and protect the interests and dignity of patients. Mr Brewer, 65, was employed at Four Seasons Care Home, Saltburn-by-the-Sea.

The Panel also found that on two occasions, Mr Brewer failed to disclose previous on an application form and a declaration which is clearly misconduct and contravenes the section of the code requiring nurses to be trustworthy.

Taking into account that in roughly handling the resident, there was no malicious intent, and that the most recent of Mr Brewer's convictions was 30 years ago, the panel decided to allow Mr Brewer to continue practicing as a nurse but cautioned him as to his future behaviour.

Commenting on the panel's decision, Craig Turton, spokesman for the NMC said:

"It is important that the public trust in the nursing profession is maintained and that patients are protected, especially the very vulnerable, as in this case, an elderly man suffering from dementia. The NMC panel took a very dim view of the breaches of the Code of Professional Conduct which Mr Brewer committed. A caution is essential in order to protect the public and ensure that this kind of incident does not reoccur in the future."

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the UK regulator for two professions, nursing and midwifery. The primary purpose of the NMC is protection of the public. It does this through maintaining a register of all nurses, midwives and specialist community public health nurses eligible to practise within the UK and by setting standards for their education, training and conduct. Currently the number of registrants exceeds 686,000. The Nursing and Midwifery Order 2001 (The Order), sets out the NMC's role and responsibilities.

http://www.nmc-uk.org