Shropshire nurse struck off after wrong jab given to child
A nurse who gave a child the wrong vaccination has been struck off.
Karen Murphy also changed and issued prescriptions without consulting a doctor and failed to refer a cancer patient to a GP.
Murphy, a practice nurse at Wem and Prees Medical Practice, has been taken off the Nursing and Midwifery Council register.
A misconduct hearing was told she sent home a patient who reported a lump in her breast and failed to refer her to her doctor, only for her to be later diagnosed with cancer.
She also faced allegations of changing prescriptions without consulting a doctor and failing to refer patients correctly, making incorrect entries in patients' notes and starting a patient on new medication without explaining its use.
The hearing was told Murphy gave the MMR vaccination to a child whose parent had asked for her child to receive the alternative DTP vaccine.
She also failed to refer a patient to a doctor who had an infection and who later lost his only functioning testicle.
It was alleged she stopped a prescription for an inhaler without discussing it with a doctor and took two high blood pressure readings from a stroke patient and failed to refer them to a GP.
The misconduct hearing was told she had notcompleted her university course and was not actually qualified to act as a prescribing nurse.
Murphy was found guilty on all charges but did not attend the conduct and competence committee substantive hearing. The panel noted she accepted that she had done some things outside the sphere of her competence.
In a letter to the panel, she wrote: "I take full responsibility for my actions and I would like to express my deep regret for any harm I may have caused any patient and for bringing the reputation of the nursing profession into disrepute."
The practice suspended Murphy on January 13, 2014, and she resigned on February 15, 2014.
