Suspended Nurse ‘forced medicine into mouth of a dementia patient’
ANURSE has been suspended for three months after allegedly forcing medication into a patient’s mouth in a care home near Bristol.
Reni Vankova Kirilova began employment at Charterhouse Care Home in the Chocolate Quarter in Keynsham on May 23, 2019.
The Nurse and Midwifery Council has found that a week later she forced a dementia patient to take medicine and held the patient’s mouth closed.
She was suspended from work on June 7, 2019, pending a police investigation, and subsequently resigned from employment at the care home the same day. The police took no action against her.
A witness told a Nurse and Midwifery Council hearing the patient was “distressed” throughout the episode, “waving her hands everywhere” and shouting, “no, no, no”.
A witness claimed Ms Kirilova “put [her] fingers over the patient’s mouth and lips to keep them closed”, but Ms Kirilova disputed this and instead described “holding [her] hand under the patient’s chin and tilting the head up”.
The panel found that the allegation of her “placing [her] hand over her mouth” was not proved, but that she did “hold her mouth closed” in some way.
Witnesses also reported hearing Ms Kirilova telling the patient to “take your tablets” and repeating the words “she needs to take her meds”.
The home manager for the Chocolate Quarter at the time of the incident said she saw Ms Kirilova forcing tablets into a patient’s mouth and placing fingers in the patient’s mouth, and stated that she would have expected the nurse to try different approaches to medication administration if not successful, and ask for colleagues to help her.
In her defence, Ms Kirilova said the patient opened her mouth and took the pill with water and that she simply lifted the patient’s chin to assist her. She denied the pill was forced into the patient’s mouth.
She also told the hearing she did not hold the patient’s lips shut, and even though she accepted the patient was distressed, she said it was only for a couple of minutes.
She added that when she started working at the care home she had one day of shadowing another member of staff, who was an agency nurse, but after that she was giving medication to patients on the unit and working alone.
She said she resigned because she was upset to receive a call from the unit manager, who told her not to come in to work.
But the panel gave her a suspension order for three months, and in its report it wrote that the patient was “put at risk of harm and was caused emotional harm as a result of your misconduct”.
It continued: “Your misconduct had breached the fundamental tenets of the nursing profession and therefore brought its reputation into disrepute. Regarding insight, the panel considered that you had made significant progress and have reflected on what you have done wrong. However, the panel was not satisfied that your insight has developed so far to allow it conclude that your fitness to practise is not currently impaired.”
Julie Haydon, the director of people at St Monica Trust, which runs the care home, said: “The wellbeing of our residents is of paramount importance to the trust and we take any allegations that may compromise the safety of our residents extremely seriously. The individual concerned was immediately suspended from work pending disciplinary, safeguarding and police investigations, and subsequently resigned from the trust’s employment.
“The trust will always take the strongest action against any colleague whose behaviour falls short of the standards we expect and we welcome the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s decision.”
[The patient was] put at risk of harm and was caused emotional harm as a result of your misconduct
Nursing & Midwifery Council