The Registrant, a nurse with 25 years professional experience, faced several charges of serious professional misconduct while working as a nurse practitioner within a GP practice. The 29 charges brought against her included multiple allegations surrounding 8 patients that included serious failures; (i) to diagnose the patients, (ii) to prescribe appropriate patient treatments, (iii) to conduct patient assessments, (iv) to make appropriate patient referrals, and (v) to correctly document clinical examinations. The Registrant admitted 7 of the charges but strongly denied the 22 others.
During a substantive 7 day hearing in September 2024 (16th September - 24 September 2024) a Fitness to Practise committee heard live detailed evidence from a medical doctor on behalf of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and live evidence from the Registrant. The committee carefully considered detailed submissions on the facts of the case on behalf of the NMC and from Dr. Graydon for the nurse. The committee only found 4 of the disputed allegations proven. It was persuaded that the remaining 18 charges in dispute were not made out based on the evidence relied upon by the NMC.
The committee went on to conclude that the Registrant’s admitted and proven failures did fall seriously short of the conduct and standards expected of a nurse and amounted to misconduct. However, based on detailed submissions on impairment made by Dr. Graydon for the nurse, the committee was satisfied that the Registrant was “currently able to practise kindly, safely and professionally, and that…[her]… fitness to practise is not currently impaired in respect of public protection”.
Furthermore, the committee was also persuaded that given the specific circumstances of the case, and the lack of any subsequent fitness to practise issues, it would not be appropriate to find impairment on a public interest basis. Significantly, it concluded that public confidence in the profession would not be undermined by a finding of no impairment.
In these circumstances, the committee did not have to consider any sanction against the Registrant and concluded the proceedings at that stage.
Dr. Graydon was instructed by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).
(At the time this article was prepared the full determination was not posted to the NMC website found here)