A NURSE from Farnham is accused of leaving a patient in agony, leaving another patient bleeding from an open wound, and preparing dangerous chemotherapy treatment in an inappropriate setting.
Dilys Karen Turner, 41, an E-grade nurse at the North Hampshire Hospital in Basingstoke, is accused of wrongly administering an anti-sickness drug through a tube used for painkillers. The patient's arm became "red, swollen, and very painful" a hearing this week heard.
"Immediately after this, the patient was in agony," said Margaret Bromley, for the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
The nurse is also accused of removing stitches from a private patient who bled from the wound, taking a male patient back to her family home, accepting gifts and money from him, and swearing.
Turner, who worked on the C2 ward, appeared before the Nursing and Midwifery Council's professional misconduct committee this week, facing nine allegations of misconduct relating to four patients between April and July 2001.
She admits all allegations except asking care assistants to read pumps and asking or permitting a care assistant to administer an injection. As The Herald went to press it was not clear whether she was admitting misconduct for each of the allegations.
Margaret Bromley, for the Nursing and Midwifery Council, said a patient was left bleeding from an open wound after Turner had ignored a doctor's instructions.
"Nurse Turner failed to use Steristrips as requested by the doctor when removing sutures from patient B.
"The patient's bell then rang and (the patient) said they were bleeding from somewhere and a member of staff found that the wound was opened at the bottom. It was about 10 cm long, which was about half of the whole wound.
"When nurse Turner was asked about the incident she said she did not see the point in using Steristrips."
Wednesday's hearing also heard Turner had breached official policy by injecting an anti-sickness drug via a patient's patient-controlled analgesia line (PCA), saying: "This is illegal, what I am doing."
She is also alleged to have given a patient permission to go on to free fluids following an operation, without the consent of a doctor.
Turner is further accused of asking a care assistant to administer an injection, remove a patient's wound clips, read epidermal and PCA pumps, and leaving a care assistant alone on the ward while she took a break.
Other allegations include failing to wear gloves when changing dressings, failing to take proper precautions when putting her hands into sharps boxes and preparing chemotherapy in the ward's treatment room instead of the designated area for toxic substances.
Fellow nurse Sally Lawler told the committee Turner could have put patients and staff at risk if the chemotherapy she was preparing in the treatment room had spilled.
"It is just a silly thing to do. We had a care assistant who was expecting a baby at the time and the drug can be harmful to unborn babies if it is spilled.
"It is a drug that kills all contactable cells on contact."
The hearing also heard the nurse swore in front of patients, staff and student nurses, using the words "f***" and s***.
"At times it was very audible to patients," said Lawler. "I received a complaint about it. I just felt quite embarrassed sometimes by it."
Senior nurse Alison Jupp held two meetings with Turner in May 2001. She said: "Nurse Turner said it was not uncommon for her not to wear gloves because she had been taught a "no-touch" technique. She said she wore gloves when the wound was mucky or infected.
"There was a complaint made by a patient and nurse Turner admitted giving an anti-sickness drug through his PCA.
"There were also complaints about her loudness and type of language that was used within patient surroundings and she said she would address that problem."
It is also alleged Turner "behaved inappropriately" towards a male patient, known as Mr C by cancelling a taxi arranged to take him to the station on his discharge and accepting gifts from him, including a Chinese take-away. She is also said to have accepted an undisclosed amount of money from the patient and taken him back to her family home.
The hearing was adjourned until July 28 and is expected to last another two days.