A NURSING home resident fell out of her wheelchair and onto the floor after being left unattended by a senior sister.
Ajoke Rafatu Gassion was given a 12 month caution order by the Nursing and Midwifery Council after a panel found her actions amounted to serious misconduct.
Miss Gassion said she left the resident to put some documents in her office and when she returned, the resident had not slipped any further down the wheelchair.
But a health care assistant who witnessed the incident at Wombwell Hall in August 2012 said she had seen the resident hanging out of her chair, asking for help and to be pulled up.
In an interview, the witness said: "I saw senior nurse Gassion in one of the resident's rooms, I asked her for help. She went out and said 'I'm not breaking my back, get a hoist.' I went to look for the hoist, it was in use. When I went back, the resident was on the floor, the wheelchair footplate was on her back."
Miss Gassion admitted failing to report the incident promptly.
She was dismissed from her employment following a disciplinary hearing.
In a statement to the panel, Miss Gassion said she regretted her actions and realised she should have waited with the resident when she was slipping out of her wheelchair.
She said she had learned from her mistakes, and that at the time her personal circumstances had been 'particularly stressful'.
** The full story appears in the Barnsley Chronicle, dated September 5. **
