Zimbabwean Nurse under probe in UK after 3 patients die under her care

UK: AN agency nurse recorded that three patients were ‘OK’ on Hallowe’en when they had actually been dead for weeks, a tribunal heard this week.

Rufaro Mubvuta, originally from Zimbabwe, wrote in her notes that she had checked the residents and all was well during a nightshift at Long Meadow Care Home in Ripon, North Yorkshire on October 31, 2014.

One of the patients had been dead for over a month, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard. Mubvuta also ignored an immobile patient’s calls for help leaving her covered in urine all night. The woman could not reach the call buzzer and had been shouting for help for hours, it was said.

Mubvuta, who was working for Hays Healthcare Ltd, recorded that the woman “slept well all night” and she had “assisted with all cares”. Another patient was found the morning following Mubvuta’s shift with a mysterious large bruise on her forehead.

Mubvuta had recorded she had checked on the woman through the night but made no mention of any bruising. Samantha Forsyth, for the NMC, said: “Some of the patients that were marked as ‘OK’ had been deceased for a while.

“One had died on September 17, one on October 15 and the other on October 22. “The other who was not mobile at all needed help to get dressed and with her personal care. “She had called for staff during the night and was found the following morning soaking wet, still in her day clothes.”

When asked, the patient confirmed that nobody had come to check on her, Forsyth told the hearing. “She could not reach the buzzer and said she had been awake all night.” The patient had wet herself and was covered in urine, the hearing was told.

Mubvuta recorded that the patient: “Slept well all night. Assisted with all cares.” When questioned about this by the nurse coming in for the day shift Mubvuta said that she had checked on the woman and she had been fast asleep.

The nurse who took over from Mubvuta found a different patient with significant bruising on her forehead. Mubvuta recorded that she checked the patient at 4.50am and 6am and she had some bruising up her arms and legs.

“The patient was found with a large bruise on her forehead that wasn’t there the day before,” said Forsyth. The mysterious bruise did not appear anywhere in her notes and Mubvuta had no explanation for it, the hearing was told.

Mubvuta, who is present at the hearing, admits recording that three patients were ‘OK’ when they were deceased, failing to attend a patient’s toiletry needs, failing to check on patients during the night shift and failing to record injury and making inadequate records.

She denies that her current fitness to practice is impaired.

The hearing continues.

Source-New Zimbabwe