Italian nurse’s English so bad colleagues had to mime to her
AN ITALIAN nurse was so poor at English a colleague was forced to mime instructions to her, a hearing was told.
Antonella Indrizzi took a job in the UK after answering a recruitment campaign in Italy in February 2015. But her colleagues at King’s Mill Hospital, Sutton-in-ashfield, Notts, soon found her lack of English was a concern.
There were numerous incidents of patients refusing to have her look after them due to her “extremely poor” language skills, a Nursing and Midwifery Council conduct committee was told.
One colleague said she had to point and mime for Ms Indrizzi who also misinterpreted medical terms on the ward. In one case, a patient became upset and the nurse could not find the words to reassure her. Instead, she told the patient to “be quiet”, a ward leader said.
Though a registered nurse, Ms Indrizzi worked as a healthcare support assistant at the hospital for nine months in 2015. She has now been struck off the medical register by the NMC conduct and competence panel, which said she was given chances to improve her English and take a test but she refused.
A hospital spokesman said all the usual employment checks were done, but as an EU national Ms Indrizzi was not required to take a language test.