One-year suspension for nurse following misconduct ruling

A care home nurse who falsified records and failed to add vital information to vulnerable residents’ care plans has been barred from practising for a year.

Jennifer Ann Stevenson was working at Lady Forester Community Nursing Home in Much Wenlock, run by English Care, when omissions and errors were discovered in multiple care plans she was responsible for.

She was dismissed from the home in 2019 and a misconduct panel has now ruled that her actions were so serious as to warrant the immediate suspension of her Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) registration.

The three-day virtual hearing was told residents were put at serious risk of harm because their care plans were not kept up to date – including a diabetic who nearly ran out of insulin because she had failed to order any.

Ms Stevenson was facing six charges relating to her conduct at the home, but did not attend the hearing and had informed the NMC that she did not intend to renew her registration due to retirement.

The first charge was that she had failed to review and update care plans during 2017 and 2018, while charges two, three and four related to the care plans of individuals named as Residents A, B and C, which she failed to update between April and June 2019.

Charge five was that Ms Stevenson had recorded the same weight for Resident C for three consecutive weeks in June 2019 without having weighed them, and the sixth charge was that her actions in doing this were dishonest.

The panel heard evidence from Keith Baggaley, deputy manager at the home, who said Resident A “could have died” had his insulin run out, and that Patient B, who had dementia, was left “in a great deal of pain” because Ms Stevenson had failed to record his pain levels in his care plan.

The panel found all charges proved other than charge 2A, which related to an alleged failure to update Resident A’s care plan on 9 May 2019.

Stuart Dingle, presenting the case for the NMC, submitted that the charges found proved “undoubtedly amount to misconduct”.

He said: “The NMC submits that all the remaining charges, both collectively and individually, represent a serious departure from the expected standards, breaches of the NMC Code, breaches of her job description, and fall below the standards expected by the CQC [Care Quality Commission] and also against the express expectations of the employer.”

The panel ruled that Ms Stevenson’s actions did amount to misconduct.

Following this judgement, Mr Dingle submitted that Ms Stevenson’s fitness to practice was currently impaired as a result of her misconduct, and said public confidence would be undermined if the panel did not reach this conclusion.

Mr Dingle said: “You have heard persuasively how the care plans led to a risk for Residents A, B and C regarding Resident A’s stocks of insulin, failing to note and manage the pain of Resident B and failing to log and track the weight of Resident C, and also failing to engage Resident C’s family in the care plan process.

“All of this put patients at unwarranted risk of harm.”

Mr Dingle added that Ms Stevenson had “clearly acted dishonestly”, and had not demonstrated any insight or attempts to remedy her actions.

The panel ruled that Ms Stevenson’s fitness to practice was currently impaired as a result of her misconduct.

In light of this, Mr Dingle submitted that a 12-month suspension order would be an appropriate sanction.

He said there were several aggravating factors, including Ms Stevenson’s “failure to engage” with the NMC, “attempts to disperse blame to colleagues”, the fact her actions had the potential to cause “real harm” to patients, and the fact she was an experienced nurse so “these failures cannot be chalked up to inexperience”.

However, he said there had fortunately been “relatively little harm” caused, and there had been no further concerns raised about Ms Stevenson since her dismissal from the home.

The panel imposed a 12-month suspension order, which will come into effect in 28 days unless Ms Stevenson lodges an appeal.

An interim suspension order was also made, preventing Ms Stevenson from practising until that date, or until any appeal is dealt with.