A mental health nurse working at two East Anglian hospitals has been accused of misconduct.
Tapuwa Kaja admitted giving a patient at Norwich's Little Plumstead Hospital in January 2019 a drinks can which the patient then used to harm themselves, resulting in hospitalisation.
The nurse is also accused of a second incident, which she denies, at the now-closed St John’s House mental health hospital in Palgrave, north Suffolk.
It is alleged that in February 2020, when working a night shift observing a patient with another nurse, Mrs Kaja failed to wake up her nurse colleague who fell asleep when on shift and pre-filled an observation sheet of the patient’s behaviour which was supposed to be completed contemporaneously.
St John’s House was shut down in 2021 after a damning watchdog report found staff sleeping on CCTV three times in a row and “elements of abuse” in the interactions between patients and staff.
The Suffolk hospital manager Deborah Bullman found Mrs Kaja next to a sleeping colleague when the two were providing 2:1 observations on a vulnerable patient.
The patient observation sheet had been pre-populated for the ensuing 45 minutes.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council hearing continues.
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