Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Bassetlaw: Nurse who pinned down dementia patient to force feed her medication is struck off



A nurse who pinned down a patient to force feed her drugs medication has been struck off.

Susan Watkinson used ‘significant force’ to hold down the dementia sufferer before covering the woman’s mouth.

Watkinson ignored pleas from the patient and said ‘well choke then’ in front of a horrified colleague at Bassetlaw General Hospital, Worksop, Notts.

She was convicted at Mansfield and Worksop Magistrates Court of assault by beating and given a two month sentence, suspended for a year.

Watkinson was on the drugs round when the dementia sufferer became verbally and physically abusive.

The nurse and a colleague offered her some medication, but she began kicking and lashing out.
Watkinson used her left hand to hold down both the patient’s arms but she spat out the medication.
During a second attempt Watkinson put her left hand over the patient’s chin and mouth.

When the patient complained she was ‘going to choke,’ to which Watkinson said in a loud and aggressive tone: ‘Well choke then.’

She walked off leaving the patient ‘usually subdued.’

The incident was reported by the colleague, but Watkinson resigned before a disciplinary hearing could take place.

Police were then notified of the incident.

Full Article  & Source:
Bassetlaw: Nurse who pinned down dementia patient to force feed her medication is struck off

3 comments:

Thelma said...

I found an aide force feeding my father in a nursing home long ago.
Then he died of a heart attack with no heart history.

Kathleen said...

This is unexcusable! Someone needs to be monitoring these workers.

Adam said...

I know dementia patients can be hard to deal with, but physical restraint is wrong.