Care home nurse faces NMC tribunal over medication mix-up
A senior care home nurse is to face a Nursing and Midwifery Council(NMC) conduct and competence committee relating the death of an elderly woman who died two days after being given the wrong medication at a nursing home in Holywell, North Wales.
The woman had been discharged from her local community hospital and had been a resident at Morfa Newydd Nursing Home in Flintshire for two days when the incident occurred.
Hazel Gillian Stears, who was the nurse-in-charge at the time, faces three counts of professional misconduct.
Ms Stears, who had been employed as a senior nurse at the home in Holywell since 2005, did not attend yesterday’s hearing and was not legally represented, but admitted the allegations in a letter to the NMC in December 2012.
The hearing established that care home management had investigated the incident and that Ms Stears should have immediately advised the resident’s next of kin of the error, sought advice from her GP and recorded the incident in her care notes.
However, it was later discovered none of this had been done.
The panel heard Ms Stears took full responsibility for her failings and was later issued with a written warning by her employers.
The hearing at Temple Court in Cardiff is expected to last for three days.
