Birmingham nurse struck off for silencing patient alarm

A nurse who silenced a seriously ill patient’s monitoring alarm has been struck off.

Colleagues of Madona Moses told a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) hearing she had silenced an alarm which indicated falling blood pressure.

The system on a ward at Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham was then muted to stop it sounding again.

Ms Moses told investigators there had been a lapse in her judgement when she was overwhelmed during a night shift. The NMC said she showed “limited remorse”.

The NMC Fitness to Practise panel earlier this month also found Ms Moses had failed to escalate the patient’s condition to senior colleagues, and wrongly told the family that the patient was being kept artificially alive for organ donation.

The incident took place in July 2018.

The nurse told a subsequent investigation by the hospital trust: “The monitor in my bed-space was alarming and I didn’t want bother the other members of staff, nor did I want to annoyed anybody, so I adjusted the alarm limit.”

Declining to take part in the hearing, Ms Moses wrote to the panel saying she had left the profession.

In its decision, the NMC said that the nurse’s actions had “caused actual harm” to the patient, and that she had shown “limited insight and remorse”.

She was suspended from the register pending a 28-day appeal period, after which the permanent striking-off order will come into force.

Heartlands Hospital has been contacted for a response.