The former director of nursing at a midlands nursing home has been censured for failing to administer prescribed medication to patients.
Mary Mealy, who was employed at Thomond Lodge nursing home in Ballymahon, Co Longford, has had conditions attached to her practice after being found guilty of professional misconduct at the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland.
Four nurses have been struck off, one censured and one admonished in the latest batch of decisions published by the board.
Ms Mealy, who was accused of secretly dumping drugs instead of giving them to elderly residents, had claimed at a fitness-to-practise committee that she was “set up” by the nursing home.
Siobhan Bridget Kelly (registration PIN number 52761), a general and children's nurse, has had her registration cancelled after being found guilty of professional misconduct twice in three years.
The High Court confirmed the decision of the board, whose fitness-to-practise committee last year heard she had not abided by conditions set after a previous inquiry.
In 2012, Ms Kelly was found to have misappropriated hospital prescriptions, written a repeat prescription for codeine phosphate and to have forged a doctor’s signature on the prescription. She did not attend the 2015 hearing.
Stealing painkillers
Nurse
Anja Pawlak
has had her registration cancelled after failing to adhere to conditions set when she was previously found guilty of professional misconduct for stealing painkillers from a care home.
Ms Pawlak, who trained in Germany and is believed to have left Ireland, was caught taking the medication and consuming it while on duty at an unspecified nursing home.
In 2011, she was censured for this by the board and conditions were attached to her practice.
The board reopened her case after failing to contact Ms Pawlak to ascertain whether she had adhered to these conditions.
Rude or threatening
Hospital nurse
Daniel Thomas
has had his name erased from the register after being found guilty of professional misconduct.
It was found he acted in a rude or threatening manner to one patient, and failed to make notes and administer drugs to a number of other patients.
Nurse Donna Chavez, who worked in Our Lady's hospital, Crumlin, has been censured and fined €1,500 after being found guilty of professional misconduct. Conditions have also been attached to her registration.
Ms Chavez gave the wrong dose of drugs to a baby in intensive care in 2012 and deliberately hid her error.
She put a decimal point in the wrong place when administering an infusion of drugs so 10 times the recommended amount was given to the child over the six-hour period.
Midwife Ellen Mary Nugent has been admonished and has had conditions attached to her name after being found guilty of professional misconduct.
It was found that when working in an unnamed hospital in January 2007, she failed to assess a woman patient adequately and to monitor the foetal heartbeat over a four-hour period during the night.
In another decision confirmed by the High Court, the registration of Robin William Jones was cancelled.
