Nurse who put duct tape over patient’s mouth fined €2,000

A nurse has been fined €2,000 after being found guilty of professional misconduct for placing tape over the mouth of a patient.

Bimbo Paden was also censured by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland over the incident, which occurred in June 2013 at St John’s Community Hospital in Sligo.

The High Court has confirmed the fine, censure and the attachment of conditions to his name on the register of nurses and midwives.

Last November, the board’s fitness to practice committee found Paden (42) guilty on two charges of professional misconduct.

He was found guilty of placing surgical tape over the mouth of a highly dependent patient on June 26th, 2013, in circumstances where he knew this to be inappropriate. He was also found guilty of professional misconduct for failing to act in the best interest of his patient.

He was charged with placing a sling under the patient without the assistance of a colleague, in breach of HSE lifting procedures but the fitness to practise committee decided this was not a breach of misconduct.

Paden was given the benefit of the Probation Act after appearing on criminal charges in relation to the incident at Sligo District Court last year.

Two female nurses were struck off the register in separate judgments published by the board.

Mary Philomena Flanagan, a director of nursing at a nursing home between January 2002 and November 2008 was earlier found guilty of professional misconduct for failing to manage the unnamed home in a safe manner.

Medication was found on the floor and in beds, drugs were administered by carers, the home was not heated properly and there was an inadequate supply of hot water, the board found.

Aisling Mary Foster, a clinical nurse manager at a day care service, was struck off for professional malpractice, which included the mistreatment of two severely intellectually disabled patients in 2010.

She was found to have removed a young man from a room and placed him in a garden on one or more occasions and prevented him from re-entering the house.

The nurse manager was also found to have leaned on top and across him in an inappropirate manner while dressing a wound on his face, as well as taking him by the hand and speaking to him in an angry manner.

In a second case, she was was to have spoken aggressively towards another male resident and prevented him from moving his arms.

She also slapped the name resident on the head in one incident, saying: “If you can do it, so can I.”

In another judgement, Michael Ronan Tierney was censured, fined €1,000 and had conditions attached to the retention of his name on the register after being found guilty by the board of professional misconduct.