A Nigerian-born nurse has been struck off for leaving a junior member of staff in charge of a kidney patient at Ninewells Hospital while she took a break.
Comfort Aramide Temisanren also moonlighted at a care home in Dundee, and the Nursing and Midwifery Council concluded she was guilty of persistently dishonest behaviour.
She showed little insight into the seriousness of her misconduct and chose not to appear before the disciplinary panel to show remorse, admit her dishonesty or pledge there would be no repetition.
The NMC panel said her dishonesty was incompatible with her continued registration as a Band 5 registered nurse, and she should be removed from the register.
A concurrent 18-month suspension was also imposed to cover the period of a possible appeal.
The panel heard Nurse Temisanren, who worked in the Tayside Renal Service and had been a registered nurse in the UK since 2005, delegated the care of a dialysis patient to a renal care assistant in April 2012.
Rules state patients receiving dialysis in the high-dependency unit are “critically unwell” and require one-to-one care at all times from a registered nurse.
Mrs Temisanren had completed the dialysis of one patient and a second was 18 minutes into treatment when she asked the renal care assistant to cover while she went for something to eat.
The patient deteriorated when she was on her break and needed assistance from a registered nurse and a doctor.
Mrs Temisanren had asked for break relief and was told she would have to cover breaks herself but did not know what this meant.
By delegating responsibility for care to an unqualified colleague, however, she put a vulnerable patient at risk of harm.
When the episode was investigated she admitted to making “a very terrible mistake leaving the technician with the patient” and promised it would not happen again.
In a separate case, she had carried out 28 shifts at Harestane Care Home between January and July 2012 while reporting to NHS Tayside that she was unable to work due to sickness.
The NMC said this dishonest behaviour “involved a deliberate and premeditated deceit,” was intextricably linked to her clinical practice and was to the detriment of her primary employer and colleagues.
NHS Tayside were inconvenienced by having to arrange cover for her shifts, and although she admitted to having worked while on sick leave her effort to minimise the extent of her dishonesty was an aggravating factor.
The panel considered that a striking off order was the only sanction to uphold proper professional standards and maintain public confidence in the profession.