A Birmingham nurse who switched off a sick patient’s bedside monitoring alarm as his condition “deteriorated” has been struck off the job. Madonna Moses, a former nurse at Heartlands Hospital, brought the nursing profession “into disrepute” during a Nursing and Midwifery Council hearing.
A misconduct investigation into allegations that Ms Moses “altered” an alarm on a “vulnerable” patient’s monitor to silence it while the patient was in a critical condition. Ms Moses was also accused of failing to escalate the patient’s worsening condition to a senior colleague and help with treatment to save their lives.
The jury found Moses guilty of the charges, saying her actions “failed to meet the professional standards and integrity expected of a nurse.” She was banned from nursing for her “serious failings” after the panel concluded that “public confidence in the profession would not be maintained” if she remained.
READ MORE: Mum’s horror as she watched partner die in jet ski crash after moving to Dubai for ‘better life’
Madonna Moses was an “experienced” group 5 nurse at Heartlands Hospital in Bordesley Green at the time of the incident in July 2018. On July 5, 2018, Ms. Moses was working the night shift in the intensive care unit when she was assigned to care for Patient A.
When Patient A’s condition began to deteriorate, Ms Moses turned off their monitoring alarms, which monitor sudden changes in a patient’s vital signs, to “stop” them.
“Her attitude was very cold”
The panel heard how Ms Moses turned off the alarm after she was “overwhelmed and tired of caring for two alarming patients”, as Ms Moses admitted to an “error in judgement”. She also stated that she did not wish to ‘annoy’ other employees with the alarm.
It was also found that Moses failed to escalate Patient A’s deterioration to senior members of staff. Colleagues of staff told the panel that when questioned, Mrs Moses “turned away” and “didn’t say anything”.
“Madona appeared withdrawn and offered no explanation as to why she did not escalate Patient A’s clinical deterioration,” a former colleague told the jury.
Another colleague said: “Her attitude was very cold and she told me that she had not recovered from the previous HR incident, that she had been mistreated by the trust but did not reflect on the impact her actions had on the patient. AND.”
Moses was a “risk to the public”
The Nursing and Midwifery Council received its own referral from Ms Moses in March 2019 regarding concerns about her fitness to practise. Ms Moses did not attend the misconduct hearing, which ran from May 13 to 17.
The panel found that by putting an “extremely vulnerable” patient at “unwarranted risk of harm”, Ms Moses’ actions fell short of “the professional standards and integrity expected of a nurse”. She was also judged to have brought the profession into disrepute.
Her lack of integrity was judged to be a “risk to the public” and it was decided that Ms Moses should be struck off the nursing register. The panel concluded that public confidence in the profession would not be maintained if Ms Moses was allowed to continue to practice.
A summary of the board’s findings reads: “Having considered all of these factors and having regard to all the evidence before it in the course of this case, the panel has determined that an appropriate and proportionate sanction is an order of striking out. Given that, as a result of the conduct of Ms. Moses brought the profession into disrepute by adversely affecting the public’s view of how registered nurses should conduct themselves, the commission concluded that nothing else would suffice in this case.
“The panel felt that this order was necessary to indicate the importance of maintaining public confidence in the profession and to send a clear message to the public and the profession about the standard of conduct required of a registered nurse.”
Heartlands Hospital has been approached for comment.