Nurse keeps job, but with conditions

Shawside Nursing Home, Oldham Road, Shaw

A Royton nurse who “psychologically abused” elderly residents at a care home will be allowed to continue practising — if she keeps a diary.

Tracey Fleming (47) was found guilty by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) of calling a sobbing frail female resident at Shaw Side Residential and Nursing Home, Shaw. a cry baby and leaving her on a commode for more than an hour.

She also threatened to leave another resident in a wet bed all night so he would develop gangrene and his legs “would have to be amputated”.

She told a third resident, who had wet his bed, he was just a dirty old man who “makes me sick”.

After the man pleaded that he could not help it, she snapped back:”You shut up — I’m in charge and I can speak to you how I like.”

Reports
But the NMC panel allowed Fleming to keep her job, ordering her to keep a weekly diary for six months on topics including the importance of maintaining dignity in older people and the use of appropriate communication strategies.

She will also be required to hold fortnightly meetings with her manager to discuss her progress, with monthly reports submitted to the NMC by her employer.

Since the incidents, Fleming, of Allendale Drive, managed Edge Lea Nursing Home, in Eccles, for three months from September to November, 2009.

She now works as a staff nurse at Peace Haven Nursing Home in Blackley.

All of the incidents took place in August, 2008, within a few weeks of her starting work at Shawside, a 150-bed BUPA care home. She became a registered nurse in May, 2007.

Imposing a six-month conditions of practice order, panel chairman Rachel O’Connell said Fleming had acted while she was under considerable pressure personally and professionally.

However, she added: “This was not an isolated incident and there were three patients involved in four allegations. There has been no apology to date.

‘We have formed the view that the registrant had little insight not only into her misconduct, but had failed to identify the possible repercussions of her actions.

‘Some of her actions resulted in patient harm.

‘The seriousness of the allegations could support a more severe sanction, but we considered it would be disproportionate to impose such a sanction and it would not provide the opportunity for her to improve her behaviour.”

Regional director of BUPA, Tracey Fletcher, said Fleming’s actions were totally unacceptable and that she had “let down our residents, their families and her colleagues, who all deplore her conduct.”