Saturday, 30 July 2022 | 18.1°C Dublin
A nurse at St James’s Hospital in Dublin repeatedly recorded inaccurate information about patients on their medical charts, an inquiry has heard.
S usamma Daniel appeared before a fitness-to-practise inquiry of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland following a complaint made about her performance by the hospital’s director of nursing, Sharon Slattery.
The 51-year-old nurse is facing a total of 17 allegations of professional misconduct and/or poor professional performance over her work on a 28-bed general medical ward at St James’s Hospital in 2018.
They included claims that she inaccurately recorded the temperature of eight different patients as 36.2º Celsius on their charts, on one or more occasions in June 2018.
The inquiry heard evidence that Ms Daniel told nursing staff that she believed it was OK to record that figure if a patient displayed a temperature in the normal 35-37ºC range.
A nurse, Patricia Nolan, told the inquiry that when the issue was raised with Ms Daniel that she apologised and promised to do better.
Ms Nolan expressed concern that Ms Daniel was “not grasping the seriousness of the incident.”
She observed that the nurse found it difficult to understand what was being said at times and also in making herself understood.
Other issues related to the recording of blood pressure and heart rate of patients and the administration of medicine, including not knowing what some medications were for, giving the wrong dosage and giving a food supplement to a patient when it was not prescribed.
Following a series of incidents of concern, Ms Nolan said an action plan was put in place that required Ms Daniel to be supervised at all times.
One incident concerned the apparent failure of Ms Daniel to recognise a significant reading with regard to an Early Warning Score about a patient.
On another occasion, she recorded false information for an assessment of a patient’s skin, incontinence and nutrition.
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The inquiry heard she also seemed to delay carrying out what were described as “simple, straightforward routine tasks,” like taking out cannulas and recording a patient’s weight.
Clinical nurse manager, Jhene Bicedo, said Ms Daniel would take 55 minutes to give medication to five patients, when it would take most nurses just 20-30 minutes.
Evidence was also given about the nurse encountering difficulties in operating a bleep system and giving incorrect and incomplete information during the handover of a patient.
Counsel for the NMBI, Lorna Lynch BL, said the allegations amounted to conduct that fell seriously short of the standards expected of nurses with most charges also representing breaches of the Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics for Registered Nurses.
The inquiry heard Ms Daniel had her contract with St James’s terminated at the end of a six-month probationary period in July 2018 as she had not demonstrated sufficient competence for a nursing role at the hospital.
Ms Daniel, who was not legally represented, admitted to the facts fully or partially in relation to seven of the allegations including failure to observe a protocol on preparing medication.
However, she contested a claim that she had left a mobile medication trolley unattended and unsecured during ward rounds on June 15, 2018.
Ms Daniel told the NMBI’s fitness-to-practise committee that she had moved to a new place with her children during the time she worked at St James’s and had felt “stressed.”
The hearing was adjourned until a future date still to be fixed.
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