A nurse working in a hospital who exposed poor standards of care by using a secret camera, was struck off the nursing register for professional misconduct. It was deemed a breach of patient confidentiality. This in itself was the case, and cannot be condoned. However, the standards of care in the hospital fell so far short of what could be expected that the nurse was felt to be acting in the public interest. The Royal College of Nursing, the union involved, is featuring a link to a petition on its website to lodge an appeal against the Nursing and Midwifery Council's decision to delete the nurse's registration. Although she did do wrong, her sanction was too harsh.
I would like to encourage anyone in the UK who reads this to sign. The NHS has this unfortunate tendency not to address problems put to its managers. It is the whistleblowers that usually get punished, not those in charge who fail to take action. A good example was seen here in the Western Isles a few years ago, where it took several years before the failing management of the local NHS was removed. Another example was the late gynaecologist Rodney Ledward, who was allowed to butcher (which he passed off as operating on) women for 11 years before he was removed.
In this case I do believe she was looking out for the welfare of the patients. Unfortunately I can't sign or I would. (Hugs)Indigo
ReplyDeleteThere should be no fear of retribution or retaliation against someone who comes across something that's inappropriate. The fault is not with the person who discovers things, even if a security / privacy breach occurred. (This is from a high level security officer whom I heard speak earlier this month.)
ReplyDeleteI wish that was true in reality.
I agree that this woman should not have received such a punishment, especially when she was better serving the pledges of her profession than if she had not reported this.
I applaud this woman for going with her conscience on this. There really should be some way that a person in this predicament can report substandard care, neglect, or anything else that is wrong or inappropriate without jeopardizing her oath to protect patient and hospital/medical confidentiality.
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