A Fife nurse has been suspended after she was found to have forced a resident to swallow medication.
Jacqueline Imrie has been sanctioned by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) after a panel found she put her hand over the mouth of a resident at Glenrothes care home Strathburn Lodge to make them take medication they had spat out.
The panel also determined the nurse failed to make any note of incident on the resident’s daily support sheet.
Mrs Imrie was employed as a lead nurse practitioner at the home, which specialises in dealing with people with dementia, at the time of the incident.
A misconduct hearing held by the NMC earlier this month found the allegations to be proven and Mrs Imrie was suspended for nine months.
‘Resident became distressed’ after given medication
Describing the incident, which occurred in December 2020, a NMC report stated: “Mrs Imrie approached resident A in the lounge area to administer oral medication.
“It is alleged resident A was asleep at the time Mrs Imrie approached them.
“Mrs Imrie then allegedly called out resident A’s name to which resident A did not respond.
“It is alleged Mrs Imrie then administered medication to resident A orally which they then spat out. It is further alleged that resident A then became distressed.
“Mrs Imrie allegedly picked up the medication resident A had spat out and attempted to re-administer the same medication orally by putting her hand over resident A’s mouth until they had swallowed the medication.”
Jacqueline Imrie dismissed from job
The report noted a subsequent disciplinary hearing was held in January 2021 where the nurse “accepted she had administered medication to resident A whilst they were asleep or drowsy but did not accept ever putting her hand flat over their mouth”.
It was also noted that Mrs Imrie had been dismissed for gross misconduct the same month and her subsequent appeal against this decision was rejected.
The NMC panel subsequently found Mrs Imrie’s fitness to practice to be impaired and determined a suspension order for a period of nine months was appropriate “to mark the seriousness of the misconduct.”
Strathburn Lodge has been approached for comment.
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