Nurse who exposed neglect and abuse of elderly patients is struck off.

[edam]

good grief Bloody regulators. How DARE they order nurses to shut up and keep quiet about malpractice? What are the chances that anyone will dare to speak out now?

The NMC should be apologising for being so crap that they allow this sort of treatment to continue, and that they haven't struck off anyone responsible for wrong-doing at the hospital in question. Not lashing out at the whistle-blower. FGS.

And if this was in the playground we would call it bullying. Damn shame.

what a back to front ruling

another bloody attempt at an establishment whitewash

expect she couldn't prove she had informed managers of bad practice - nothing in writing or an official complaint about something but the trust she worked for could prove through the filming for the documentary that she wasn't intervening when patients were being neglected.
is utter crap and bollocks and so bloody typical of the nHS and also NMC.

I heard someone quoted on the radio today that they sacked her 'to keep the public's trust in the professionalism of nurses' or some such nonsense.

I think it was professional, as a caring nurse, to expose the onging care issues that were compromising the wellbeing of the patients.

I am horrified that there is no 'whistleblower' protection.

That's outrageous. That poor woman, what a horrible reward for showing compassion and determination to expose bad practises.

sadly all too believable.

I didn't see the documentary ,did you?

The 'good' news is that she must have known it could end up like this and therefore I am guessing she weighed up the options and decided it was worth the risk to show the underside of the coin. We need people like her and it is admirable for her to put herself up for it.

There is a law which is supposed to offer protection to whistleblowers - Public Disclosure Act or something, I forget. Doesn't make much difference if the regulator has struck you off, though.

Thing is there had been complaints about the Brighton and Sussex and nothing had been done. It is the regulators and hospital managers who should be feeling guilty, not this nurse.

I was writing about something to do with nursing when Panorama came out and was disappointed at the number of nurses who were very aggressive about the filming, attacking Margaret Haywood for 'letting the side down' or damaging public trust in nurses. If nurses are treating patients with contempt, they don't deserve our trust! (And neither do those who put nurses in that position when it's understaffing that is the problem.)

This is nonsense - she was EMPLOYED by the BBC to GO IN AND FILM. She did NOT attempt to resolve problems in any other way first. She willingly breached patient confidentiality. There is NO WAY that a nurse should be allowed to do that. Striking her off was the right thing to do.

Why wasn't there anything in writing though? I don't get that. Maybe putting it in writing wouldn't have helped (it probably wouldn't. I have a very low opinion of the health service), but without that it makes it look like she saw patients being mistreated and made a documentary about it instead of acting.

striking her off won;t resolve any issues either ! patients will still lose

For once I agree with mp, she did breach patient confidentiality which is against her code of conduct.
In the first instance she should have gone to the manager/directorate manager/chief exec or the NMC if none of those was possible.

She was being employed by the BBC to expose things while being paid by the NHS. There is no way that should be allowed!!!

i didn't actualy watch it as i can't bear more nurse bashing. what ever is wrong within the NHS nurses are usually to blame for it. and as a nurse i can't but help take it a bit personally.
BUT
i am utterly fed up with mismanagement. poor staffing levels. dangerous working conditions. all the other general crapness in nursing there is, if someone offered me a camera to expose problems within hospitals i'd do it. but it would be nice to see it from a nurses point of view rather than patients. i'd say that most complaints and problems encountered in hospitals aredue to poor management and staff shortages and most nurses are just desperately trying to care without the time, resources and support from their managers.

i have become so disheartened and cynical i have actually recently jacked in full time nursing to do something else. i am sad and angry about this because i love nursing. i am good at it. but i had nothing but hassle, nagging and pressure to move the conveyor belt along i never had any time to actually look after and care for my patients.

sorry that turned into a rant.
thats what i meant. if there had been official complaints about specific bad practices rather than just filming them happening without intervening i dubt she would have been deregistered. i think the problem is that she was seen to be standing by and filming rathr than doing something to stop it there and then. that is where she became guilty of malpractice

It is not the whistleblowing that has got her struck off. It is the filming part. Of course in the end, it was filming for a good cause. but the filming was done without the consent of the (vunerable) patients in it.
All NHS trusts have whistle-blowing policies in place. They are dealt with separately to her superiors ie ward manager. She has NO excuse not to have followed the (annoymous btw) whistle blowing policies.

actually i remember now i did watch it.

I think what she did was wrong.
There are ways of blowing the whistle without the need to risk your patients confidentiality or as was said before by playing the journalist in a nurse's uniform.

maybe she thought in her desperation that this would actually get her listened to and get some results., rather than following the normal procedures?

I'm sorry but that's tosh. Typical shoot the messenger. Because the regulators, managers and nurses who are abusing patients care so much about the dignity of the people they treat so badly. IIRC Panorama quite rightly obscured the identity of the patients involved.

If she hadn't filmed it, no-one would have believed it. Just as if demonstrators hadn't filmed police at the G20, no-one would have believed they had been attacked by the cops, or that officers had taken their badges off.

Undercover filming is a legitimate tool that protects the rights of individuals against the state. That's why the authorities, from the police to the NMC and the 'Independent' Police Complaints Commission are so keen to stamp it out. Nothing to do with protecting anyone's dignity at all. Except theirs.

She said she had voiced her concerns through her immediate line manager "but nothing was really taken on board" line manager so she didn't even follow the correct procedure BEFORE she decided to wear a camera around the ward.
da

(can you tell I'm a student nurse that has just had a lecture on whistleblowing and bad practice...)

uh that link wont work oops. apologies

ta da