Nurse who fell asleep feeding two babies suspended
PA MediaA nurse went to sleep as she fed two babies and left another alone when they needed to be constantly monitored, the nursing regulator has heard.
Emelyn Enad worked in the neonatal ward at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth between January 2021 and June 2022.
A Hampshire care home she had also worked at shared concerns with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and the hospital was then asked if staff had raised any issues.
Mrs Enad has been suspended from nursing for a year.
The hospital told the NMC that Mrs Enad also gave a father the wrong bottle of breast milk for their child and did not tell any senior staff of the error.
It told the NMC it had started its own investigation into Mrs Enad over concerns but it had not finished by the time she resigned in June 2022.
A panel found that she had fallen asleep while feeding the two babies and writing up patient notes on the ward on 31 July 2021.
On 31 August 2021, she was found to have left a baby alone in an isolation cubicle, forgetting to ask a colleague to cover her absence.
The colleague found that while Mrs Enad was away, the cubicle's "red alarm" was triggered.
They told the panel that suggested immediate care was required.
The NMC panel found Mrs Enad leaving the isolation cubicle was a "serious breach" because she "failed to communicate effectively, put at risk the safety of a vulnerable patient and did not take measures to reduce the risk of harm".
In February 2022, she was found to have given the father a bottle of breast milk meant for another baby.
She said that milk was placed in the wrong tray in a fridge but the panel said it was her responsibility to check she was giving out the correct bottle.
It said her actions "fell seriously short of the conduct and standards expected of a nurse".
But it said that, despite some "attitudinal concerns", the issues raised were "remediable" and suspended her from nursing for a year.
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