Nurse struck off after failing to act on stroke

Mental health nurse Jacqueline Osborne was working overnight at Greasbrough Residential and Nursing Home on June 21, 2013, when the resident fell.

The patient showed signs of having suffered a stroke but, rather than dialling 999 as per official policy, Miss Osborne chose to wait until morning.

When another nurse examined the resident the next day, they immediately called an ambulance.

The patient died 11 days later, though Miss Osborne is not accused of having caused or contributed to their death.

In December 2015 a Nursing and Midwifery Council panel suspended Miss Osborne for 12 months, extended by a further six months in December 2016.

The panel gave the nurse two chances to redeem herself, noting a “public interest in returning an otherwise competent nurse back to safe

practice”.

But it ended her nursing career last month by striking her off, after she “failed to provide evidence of any remediation” and had “not demonstrated any insight into her previous failings”.

NMC officials determined that Miss Osborne’s fitness to practise was “impaired by reason of [her] misconduct”, adding that only striking off could maintain public confidence in the regulation of nursing.