Nurse Who Shirked Duty To Watch Porn Is Struck Off

A senior nurse who was caught watching porn in the residents’ lounge of a Scottish care home was yesterday struck off. The Nursing and Midwifery Council found Jessie MacPhee, 42, guilty of sleeping on the job as well as five counts of abusing colleagues and one of improperly storing medicine.

But Mrs MacPhee, a registered nurse for 22 years, was cleared of performing a sex act on a severely disabled patient and of encouraging another member of staff to have sex with him.

The panel also found the married mother of two not guilty of improperly administering medicine at the Lynn of Lorne nursing home in Oban.

Care assistant Lynda Burgin, 52, told the panel that after finding the disabled man, referred to as Patient A, on his bed in a sexually aroused state, Mrs MacPhee had joked: “Go on Lynda. Why don’t you relieve yourself.”

Witnesses gave evidence that she had watched explicit DVDs in the residents’ lounge and had slept for up to five hours at a time while she was supposed to be on duty.

A former colleague, Iain Scott, said: “During one shift I walked into the lounge. A pornographic DVD had been put on. I found it very embarrassing and left.”

Mr Scott added: “[Mrs MacPhee] used to go away for her break, often to an empty resident’s room.

“Sometimes she would go away at 11pm and you wouldn’t see her again until 5am.”

At the hearing in Edinburgh, Moi Ali, the panel’s chairwoman, said Mrs MacPhee’s fitness to practise was “impaired”.

But the hearing could not find her guilty of sexual assault because the alleged victim, referred to as Patient A, a 60-year-old man who suffered from multiple sclerosis but was mentally alert, was not called to give evidence – to the panel’s surprise.

The disciplinary panel ruled that it could not convict Mrs MacPhee on the evidence of just one witness – a nurse who claimed he had witnessed the assault through an open door.

Mrs Ali said: “This is a very serious charge. But we are not satisfied to the required standard.”

After the decision, by the council’s conduct and competence committee, Mrs MacPhee was officially struck off the nursing register for five years.

An interim order of 18 months was also put in place so the ban can take immediate effect and will not be affected by any subsequent appeal.