A Fife nurse has been struck off after lying about her employment history to medical chiefs.
Christine Brown has been sanctioned by the Nurse and Midwifery Council (NMC) after a panel found she had given inaccurate information on four job application forms.
A misconduct hearing held by the NMC found the allegations to be proven and Brown was struck off the register.
She is no longer employed by NHS Fife.
Discrepancies flagged by NHS Fife
An NMC report revealed how in August 2018, an HR officer with NHS Fife reported discrepancies on four job application forms Brown had submitted to the board between January and July of that year.
Brown had applied for the positions of children’s community ADHD nurse, staff nurse at Glenmar children’s respite and homecare service, neonatal staff nurse and community staff nurse.
She was successful in the neonatal nurse application and started working in that role in April 2018.
What were the discrepancies in the applications?
The NMC says in each of the four applications, Brown gave differing details about her previous employment.
In three of the applications, Brown stated she had previously been employed as a bank nurse by NHS Fife from March 2014.
In the fourth application, she indicated she had been employed by the health board from 2015.
However, it was found she did not join the NHS Fife bank until April 2016 – working there until October 2016 – and had no previous service with the health board.
Brown was also found to have given conflicting information about past employment with NHS Grampian.
She stated she had worked for the board since May 2017 at the time of her 2018 applications.
But the NMC found Brown was on a bank contract only and had no NMC registration between then and February 2018 – meaning she “could not be working as a trained nurse”.
An investigation was launched into the discrepancies in September 2018 and following a disciplinary hearing held in January 2019, Brown was sacked for gross misconduct.
Nurse’s actions ‘brought profession into disrepute’
After investigating the matter, the nursing regulator concluded Brown’s actions had brought the profession into “disrepute” and struck her off the register.
The NMC report said: “Mrs Brown’s actions were significant departures from the standards expected of a registered nurse, and are fundamentally incompatible with her remaining on the register.
“Having regard to the effect of Mrs Brown’s actions in bringing the profession into disrepute by adversely affecting the public’s view of how a registered nurse should conduct herself, the panel has concluded that nothing short of (a striking-off order) would be sufficient in this case.”
The Courier has been unable to reach Brown for comment.
A spokesperson for NHS Fife said: “NHS Fife is unable to comment on matters relating to staff members, past or present.
“However, we can confirm the individual in this case is no longer employed by NHS Fife.”
