RAH nurse who failed to help patients could be struck off for breach
Worker previously warned by panel didn’t ‘obey instructions’
A nurse has been banned from working for six months for failing to care for two seriously ill patients.
Wendy Scott did not carry out proper observations to check if they were at risk of sepsis at Paisley’s Royal Alexandra Hospital.
Special conditions were placed on her registration to practice.
Regulator the Nursing and Midwifery Council has since suspended her for failing to follow these.
A watchdog report states: “The panel reflected on its reasons for finding misconduct.
“It was satisfied that both Patient A and Patient B were put at unwarranted risk of harm.
“This was by Ms Scott’s failure to appropriately escalate and record information and her poor communication to colleagues and the subsequent potential delays in treatment this may have caused.
“The panel was also satisfied that Ms Scott breached fundamental tenets of the profession by failing to preserve the safety of Patients A and B and failing to ensure appropriate and timely care.
“The panel further noted that Ms Scott was a qualified nurse and that some of the concerns related to basic nursing practice.”
Scott was hauled in front of a disciplinary hearing to explain her failings during a night shift stint.
It found she did not inform her boss that a patient’s National Early Warning Score (NEWS), used by medics to assess the risk of sepsis, had risen.
She also failed to record fluid levels on an hourly basis and carry out hourly checks.
And she also did not tell the Hospital at Night team that the patient’s haemoglobin, the ironrich protein in red blood cells, level had reached a specified level.
A claim she did not help when the patient went into cardiac arrest was found not proven by the panel.
A second patient is also alleged to have been subjected to poor care by Scott the same night.
She inaccurately recorded their NEWS score.
She also failed to contact the Hospital at Night team regarding that patient.
The incidents all occurred between March 25 and 26, 2016.
Bosses did find Scott had not been “adequately supported” during her shift due to understaffing.
They also admitted it was “unusual” to have two seriously ill patients in the care of a nurse and conceded it would be “understandably challenging”.
Scott faced being struck off for the errors.
But an earlier disciplinary panel instead decided she could continue to work under certain conditions.
These were that she placed herself under supervision of a manager when working.
She was told to write a personal development plan, outlining how she planned to improve communication, collaborative working, recognising her own limitations and how to manage deteriorating patients.
She was also told to attend monthly meetings with bosses and tell the regulator if she moved job.
But the nurse failed to follow instructions.
She was summoned to another hearing earlier this month.
Chiefs were told she no longer wanted to work as a nurse and had not obeyed the conditions.
They took further action to withdraw her registration and warned she could ultimately be struck off.
The report adds: “Ms Scott has not engaged with this process.
“Although the panel was satisfied that Ms Scott’s failings, demonstrated on a single night shift, were potentially remediable, she has taken no steps to persuade the panel that her failings are acknowledged and have been remedied.
“The panel bore in mind that the overarching objectives of the NMC are to protect, promote and maintain the health safety and well-being of the public and patients.
“And to uphold and protect the wider public interest, which includes promoting and maintaining public confidence in the nursing and midwifery professions and upholding the proper professiona l standards for members of those professions.
“In reaching this decision, it bore in mind all of the circumstances around the events of this single night shift and the challenges that Ms Scott faced.
“However, the panel concluded that that there is a risk of repetition and that a finding of impairment is necessary on the grounds of public protection and the public interest in upholding proper professional standards.”