Colchester Hospital nurse is given caution order after hearing

Whilst working on Colchester Hospital’s Tiptree ward Rosa Abril administered drugs Tazocin and Omeprazole to two patients without a second checker present as per the trust’s intravenous therapy procedure.

She then falsified the patients’ charts with the initials or signatures of one of two different nursing colleagues.

The Fitness to Practice committee of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) found her actions amounted to misconduct at a hearing earlier this month.

A report states: “Trust in the nursing profession is at the heart of the profession and the panel considered a fully informed member of the public would have their confidence in the profession and the NMC as regulator seriously undermined if no finding of impairment were to be made, given your dishonesty.

“Having regard to all of the above, the panel was satisfied your fitness to practise is currently impaired, on public interest grounds alone.”

The hearing was told seven falsifying incidents took place over a 36 hour period on two successive night shifts in January 2018.

Ms Abril was caught out when one of her colleagues checked one of the charts and raised this with another colleague who found his signature had also been faked.

She was confronted and immediately admitted what she had done to the other nurses. She also admitted all claims against her to the committee.

Following an investigation by the hospital trust after the incident, Ms Abril completed three months supervised practise on another ward.

No further issues with her conduct have been identified since the incident and she had expressed remorse about her actions.

The committee were satisfied a 12-month caution order, the least restrictive sanction, was sufficient in the case.

The report states: “The panel considered, in this exceptional case, it is in the public interest to retain the skills of a safe, competent and caring registered nurse.”

After 12 months the caution order will be removed from her record.