Nurse suspended for misconduct at care home near Shrewsbury
A mental health nurse has been suspended after failing to give morphine to an elderly patient and falsifying records.
Ritu Rastogi worked at Roden Hall Nursing Home, near Shrewsbury
She appeared before a fitness to practice panel of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) in London to answer charges.
They included that she failed to administer morphine sulphate tablets to an elderly resident on October 9, 2015, and that she made incorrect entries in the woman's notes stating that she had administered the powerful drug when she had failed to do so.
During the two-week hearing the panel heard that Rastogi asked a colleague to countersign documents that said she had witnessed him administering the drugs, when she knew she had not.
The panel, led by chairman Philip Sayce, said that Rastogi had acted dishonestly and suspended her from practising for 12 months.
He said: “Your actions were dishonest in that you knew you had not administered morphine sulphate tablets to resident A on October 9 2015 yet deliberately made a false entry to suggest you did otherwise.”
The panel heard that Rastogi had been a band 5 nurse at the home and a number of allegations were made against her between March 2014 and October 2015.
Medication
It was alleged that she had forced a resident to swallow medicines without water and that she had been seen on a number of occasions pouring tablets in to a resident’s mouth when it was against her will.
An internal investigation was conducted and a disciplinary hearing was held in May 2014. These charges were not sufficiently proved at the NMC hearing.
In July 2015, a doctor prescribed prednisolone, a steroid medication used to treat certain types of allergies, inflammatory conditions, autoimmune disorders, and cancers, for resident A. At handover time, Rastogi was told by a colleague that she had to give the steroid to the resident. But she failed to do so.
In mitigation, Rastogi said she did not remember being told to administer prednisolone. She added that the resident did not seem to be having any problems, “He appeared settled. So I forgot about it.”
The panel felt that Rastogi’s actions ‘fell short of the standards expected of a registered nurse’ and were serious enough to amount to misconduct.
They added there were some mitigating factors including that her dishonesty arose as a result of ‘trying to cover up a mistake while in a panic’ and there were stressful factors in her personal life and health at the time.
Roden Hall Nursing Home declined to comment.
