Nurse faces dismissal over sex with mental health patient
By Liz Lockhart
A nurse from the Midlands who had sex with a mental health patient in her care faces being struck off. We do not feel it necessary to name her as the purpose of this report is to highlight the need for total professionalism by all healthcare providers when dealing with the people suffering from mental health disorders.
Along with poor mental and physical health comes vulnerability. We tend to see our care providers as our direct line to recovery and in doing so we are at risk of glorifying them. It is also very easy to see their ‘care’ as more personal than it really is, particularly at a time when the kindness of others means so much.
Mental Healthy has covered this subject in a previous article which you can read here .
The nurse at the center of this case started a sexual relationship with a patient who was assigned to her, a disciplinary hearing was told. The 43-year-old mother has admitted a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) misconduct charge of having a sexual relationship with a patient for several months in 2009.
The NMC panel was told that the patient was suffering from depression and the nurse had been assigned to his case as a gateway mental health worker. It was only when the relationship turned sour that the nurse confessed to the affair in a phone call to her boss, according to a report in the Birmingham Mail.
The nurse told her boss that she had tried to end the relationship but the patient would not leave her alone, a NMC spokesman said. She also stated that the patient had threatened to tell the Trust about the relationship.
The nurse was asked if she had had sexual intercourse with the patient and she confirmed that she had. The NMC spokesman said ‘The registrant’s behaviour was clearly a serious breach of her professional duty to establish and actively maintain clear sexual boundaries at all times with people in her care’.
The Mental Health Trust held an investigation in 2010 which resulted in the nurse being sacked for gross misconduct but, following an appeal, she was reinstated, given a final written warning and reinstated in a non-medical job. The new position ensured that she did not have contact with patients.
The NMC was told that the Trust was now considering offering her a phased return to medical nursing work under supervision.
The NMC spokesman commented that ‘The panel has no doubt the registrant’s misconduct in this case amounted to a breach of a fundamental tenet of the nursing profession.’
‘The panel is not satisfied that … (the nurse) has demonstrated full insight into the seriousness of her misconduct and in particular, the extent of the damage which her sexual relationship is likely to have inflicted on the vulnerable patient concerned.’
‘The revelation of her relationship to her employers was only made several weeks after she had received advice from colleagues, in whom she had confided that her relationship was unprofessional, and only after the patient threatened that he would report her to the Trust.’
This case highlights how vital it is that healthcare providers who are dealing with mental health patients maintain a professional position at all times. It is possible to provide care and assistance without crossing necessary boundaries.
People suffering from mental health disorders can feel isolated and frightened and these feelings can be alleviated by those caring for them but it must be a priority that this care is carried out professionally.
