Boss of Cwmbran care home altered records and could be struck off
A CARE home boss who admitted falsifying the insulin records of a vulnerable diabetes patient faces being struck off.
Gillian Shaw added the names of colleagues on a medication chart of the unnamed patient at Llanyravon Court Care Home in Cwmbran, a hearing was told.
She also coerced another nurse, Berly Thomas, to sign the chart in a bid to cover her back, a Nursing and Midwifery Council panel in Cardiff heard yesterday.
Shaw was sacked after records indicated the patient had not been given the sugar-regulating drug for a total of four days in summer 2011, the panel heard. Shaw claimed the patient had been given the drug.
She later found new employment in the same field. But she could be struck off from the nursing profession because of her dishonesty, the panel was told.
Her care home in Llanfrechfa Way was the subject of a protection of vulnerable adults (Pova) investigation at the time, the panel heard yesterday.
The probe was specifically in relation to the administration of “short acting insulin” to the unnamed patient A, Nursing and Midwifery Council advocate Saima Hirji told the hearing.
Torfaen social services obtained the blank records of patient A as part of this investigation but days later realised they had been tampered with.
Mrs Shaw initially denied any knowledge of the falsification, the panel heard.
But she later admitted altering the Medication Administration Record after Nurse Thomas acknowledged that she too had amended the chart.
“Gillian was my manager and I did as she asked and I signed it,” said Ms Thomas when she was interviewed by her employers.
Miss Hirji told the hearing that “only in exceptional circumstances” could a nurse expect not to be struck off for dishonesty.
Shaw was suffering “extreme stress” at the time of the disciplinary proceedings in August 2011, the panel heard.
But Miss Hirji argued the senior nurse, with 35 years’ experience, could not use her emotional state as a mitigating factor, as stress and pressure are features of the nursing profession.
Yesterday, Shaw admitted two charges of retrospectively altering the medical chart of patient A to make it appear that insulin had been safely administered on June 28 and June 29, 2011.
She also admitted a further charge of dishonesty in respect of the two altered records.
She further admitted requesting Nurse Thomas to complete the chart of patient A for the dates of June 30 and July 20, 2011.
She also admitted a fourth charge that the request made of Nurse Thomas was dishonest.
