‘Smutty’ Care Home Nurse Could Be Struck Off
A smutty nurse who made a string of inappropriate comments while at work faces being kicked out of the profession.
John Hagans, 32, joked to colleagues he had found a gold watch inside an elderly woman while carrying out an intimate procedure. He also made lewd comments to an agency nurse.
Hagans was working a shift at the Hardwick Court Nursing Home in Stafford Road, Walsall, now the Lakes Nursing Home, when he made inappropriate comments to care assistant Cheryl Kingston in March 2004.
The young woman was in the servery of the home when Hagans, a senior employee, approached her, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.
She told the hearing they were surrounded by at least 50 residents and staff members when Hagans made his smutty remarks.
Ms Kingston said: “I felt very uncomfortable. I reported him to the senior carer straight away.”
She said Hagans later apologised to her, asking if he had made her feel uncomfortable.
Care assistant Anne-Marie Hinton was working with Hagans at Hoar Cross Nursing Home in Burton-on-Trent in March 2004, when she was left shocked by his watch ‘joke’.
She told the committee that Hagans was administering a vaginal pessary through a tube when he made the comment.
She said: “Patient B was in her mid-80s and had to have this procedure every other day. She preferred to have a female do this.
“When Hagans carried out the procedure I stayed with Patient B all the way through. At the end, he said: ‘Ooh, look, I’ve found a gold watch’.”
Hagans, from Tipton, claimed he made the comment to ‘lighten the atmosphere’.
He denied making inappropriate comments while working in the homes but was found guilty of the charge.
The NMC earlier cleared Hagans of touching a third care assistant ‘inappropriately’.
Hagans was found guilty of misconduct and now faces being suspended, cautioned or struck off at his resumed hearing which took place as the Advertiser went to press.
