CRUEL CARE HOME NURSE IS STRUCK OFF
Worker subjected elderly to physical and verbal abuse
A CRUEL care home nurse has been struck off.
Jacqueline Kelly subjected elderly residents and staff to a catalogue of verbal and physical abuse while employed at two Lanarkshire care homes.
The nurse’s behaviour was described as ‘cruel and unacceptable’.
A CRUEL care home nurse who put an OAP with advanced dementia in ‘solitary confinement’ as a punishment for asking for more food has been struck off.
Jacqueline Kelly subjected elderly residents and staff to a catalogue of verbal and physical abuse while employed at two Lanarkshire care homes.
On one or more occasions, she put an elderly woman into a wheelchair and left her in an empty room because she had a habit of asking for more food.
Shocked colleagues told how they found the woman crying and saying she had been left there because she, ‘had been bad’
Kelly also pushed a glass of juice into the face of another OAP to force him to take his medication and put her foot against the leg of a chair to stop an elderly woman getting up, leaving her “terrified.”
The nurse’s behaviour was described as, ‘cruel and unnacceptable’ by a panel of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), at a recent hearing, who added: “Ms Kelly isolated a vulnerable patient with dementia for the purpose of of punishing her challenging behaviour.”
The care home where the incident took place was not identified in the inquiry papers. However, the incidents happened from April 2009 to December 2016, while she was employed by Larchwood Care at Avonbridge Care Home in Hamilton and Beechwood Care Home in Wishaw, owned by the Holmes Care Home ltd.
The nurse also refused to check on a dying resident, whose breathing was described by a colleague as ‘not normal’ until she realised the family were in the home and pushed a glass of orange juice into the face of another OAP to get him to take his medication at Avonbridge Care Home.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) heard evidence from eight witnesses and concluded there was a pattern of behaviour which had put residents, “at real risk of harm.”
She was dismissed on December 7, 2016.
Other charges found proved state that she placed her foot against the leg of a chair to trap an, ‘agitated and distressed’ elderly woman at Beechwood Care Home, who had wanted to leave the room and then lost her temper, shouting and banging her fist on the table.
She was also verbally abusive to colleagues.
Lesley Carcary, Director of Action on Elder Abuse Scotland, said: “A nurse is someone in a position of trust, and Ms Kelly clearly abused this role by degrading, frightening and failing to meet the basic needs of vulnerable patients. We applaud the NMC for their decision to strike her off, but were dismayed that no criminal actions were considered.”