UK’s worst nurse?
She took lewd selfie as patient lay dying, slept on duty and tried to have cocaine delivered
A NURSE who posed for a lewd selfie as a patient lay dying nearby has been struck off.
Michelle Vaughan, 47, also tried to have cocaine delivered to her while on duty and slept during shifts.
The photograph showing tattooed Vaughan bending over while a man stood behind her ‘imitating a sexual position’ was taken in the residents’ lounge at Tapton Grove Nursing Home in Chesterfield.
She posted it online after she finished her shift, during which she was the nurse in charge, on Christmas Day in 2016.
Vaughan tried to claim she was bending down to pick up a pen while the unidentified man stood nearby but a disciplinary panel of the Nursing and Midwifery Council said the photograph appeared posed. In a report of its findings the panel said: ‘Although both Ms Vaughan and the gentleman are fully clothed in the photograph it does appear that they are imitating a sexual position.
‘The panel was of the view that this behaviour at work was inappropriate especially given the panel was informed that a resident was at the end of his life in a nearby room.’
Between March 2014 and January 2017 the registered nurse was involved in a catalogue of incidents that eventually led to her being sacked in March last year after colleagues blew the whistle on her behaviour.
Weeks after posting the photograph Vaughan texted a colleague asking if she could have cocaine delivered to her at the home which looks after people with severe mental health needs.
The fitness to practise committee hearing at which she was struck off was told Vaughan also frequently slept on duty and posed ‘a serious risk of potential harm’ to patients due to her poor clinical practice. The panel, which heard evidence from four of Vaughan’s former colleagues, said the grandmother, of Brimington, Chesterfield, who did not attend the proceedings, had shown ‘very limited remorse’ and ‘no real insight’.
Tapton Grove has 63 bedrooms in three self-contained homes within 12 acres of grounds.
Sarah Chell, manager of the home which is operated by Sun Healthcare, said: ‘As nurses we have a duty of care. All allegations of misconduct are taken seriously and as nurses we are aware of our responsibilities.’