Cruel nurse pleads to save her job

A nurse subjected frail pensioners to psychological abuse at a BUPA care home insisted she was a “very good professional” yesterday.

Tracey Fleming (47) called a sobbing frail female resident a “cry baby” and left her on a commode for more than an hour, The Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.

Fleming, of Allendale Drive, Royton, threatened to leave a third resident in a wet bed all night so he would develop gangrene and his legs “would have to be amputated,” the hearing was told.

Fleming verbally abused the residents within weeks of taking up a post at the 150-bed BUPA Shawside Residential and Nursing Home in Shaw. Home manager Joan Walton told the panel that Fleming’s actions can be seen as being psychologically abusive.

Ms Walton added: “This was considered to be humiliating and intimidating the residents involved.”

All of the alleged incidents took place in August, 2008, within a few weeks of Fleming starting work at the home.

Fleming yesterday begged to be allowed to keep her job after a series of charges were found proved against her.

She told the hearing: “I don’t call it nursing as a profession, I call it a gift. It is a gift that a lot of people have not been chosen to do but I think nursing has been a tremendous gift to me.”

Fleming, who represented herself in the hearing, claimed her 27-year career in care of the elderly and vulnerable included a lot of achievements.

Earlier, the nurse, who currently works at the Peace Haven nursing home in Manchester, said: “It’s in my blood, I don’t know anything else but care.”

The misconduct panel must now decide whether Fleming’s failures mean she is impaired to work as a nurse.

Tracey Fletcher, regional director of BUPA, said: “We have apologised to the residents concerned.”

Proceeding.