Nurse fell asleep on first night of work

8:39pm Monday 19th May 2008

A NURSE who fell asleep on her first night at work has appeared before the disciplinary panel of the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

Shirley Dodgson, from Radcliffe, also left a trolley full of dangerous drugs unlocked, failed to give a woman the correct medication and made a pensioner suck' a pill from her unwashed hand during a catalogue of blunders at a Cheshire care home.

She appeared before the NMC yesterday, where it was also claimed she failed to record who she had given tablets to on her first and last night shifts at Parklands Residential Home in Poynton, the panel was told.

Dodgson, aged 50, had been called on at short notice to work the night shift on June 14, 2006.

Tom Walker, for the NMC told the panel: "On that night a care team leader was needed so an agency was used to find Dodgson. This was the first time she had ever worked at the home.

"Following her shift, a number of complaints were raised about her conduct and performance. At one point she was seen to be asleep."

Dodgson is even said to have made a patient suck a dissolving Temazepam from her finger.

Care assistant Susan Bowman, who was working under Dodgson on that night, told the panel: "Dodgson scooped it (the tablet) out of the pot with her finger and put it in the patient's mouth. The resident just opened her mouth and sucked the tablet off Dodgson's finger.

"She was not wearing gloves and had not washed her hands. I just gasped and said you shouldn't have done that'. She said words to the effect that it would have melted in her mouth anyway."

Dodgson denies the majority of the charges and misconduct.

The hearing, which will eventually determine her fitness to practise, continues.