A NURSE who was found to have used unnecessary force in handling patients and who instructed non-nursing staff to kick a woman patient in the shins so she would eat her food has been found guilty of professional misconduct.
The Fitness to Practise Committee of An Bord Altranais, the regulatory body for nurses in Ireland, decided nurse Hanorah Theresa Butler should be struck off the nurses register for her misconduct.
The allegations proven against Ms Butler, whose registered pin number was 16451, occurred in the summer of 2002.
It was alleged that she woke a female patient by pulling the hairs on her legs, she treated a patient roughly while bathing her.
It was also proven she struck another patient in a rough fashion on the thigh.
In addition she told a separate colleague if she was struck by a patient she should strike back but make sure nobody else was looking.
The fitness to practise committee found Ms Butler “had handled patients in an excessively physical manner and used unnecessary force”, treated patients rudely and “used foul and abusive language in an aggressive and demeaning fashion when addressing patients.”
The nursing board’s decision to erase Ms Butler’s name from the nurses register, which has just been published, has also been confirmed by the High Court.
An Bord Altranais does not provide details of the hospital the nurse worked in.
The nursing board has also struck off another nurse Gertruda Kudelska, registered pin number 115915, for failing to display sufficient competence as a midwife when working at an unnamed hospital between September, 2007 and January, 2008.
In its finding it also noted she failed to achieve an ability to communicate in English either verbally or in writing.
And in the case of a third nurse – Grazyna Katarzyna Gorska, registered pin number 104198 – the nursing board ruled conditions should be attached to the retention of her name on the register after a fitness to practise inquiry found she failed to have or demonstrate or acquire a knowledge of written or spoken English.