Nurse suspended over relationship with patient

A nurse who admitted having a relationship with an “extremely vulnerable” mental health patient under her care has been suspended for 12 months.

Jessica Robinson was working at Cygnet Hospital Wyke in Bradford when she contacted the patient on social media before they started a four-month relationship in 2022, a Nursing and Midwifery Council fitness to practise hearing was told.

The panel heard Ms Robinson, who had since left nursing but was still working with vulnerable people, agreed she had made “a significant error”.

They concluded her behaviour indicated “a serious lapse in professional judgment” and suspended her from the nursing register for a year, preventing her working in healthcare.

At a virtual hearing on Monday, the panel said there was evidence Ms Robinson’s contact with the patient, a 34-year-old man, had “caused him distress”.

Such conduct “reinforces the risks that such inappropriate relationships pose to patients’ well-being”, they added.

The panel heard that Ms Robinson had worked as a mental health nurse at the hospital, which provided in-patient care for men with complex and challenging mental health conditions.

The man, who had been under her care, was described in the hearing as “extremely vulnerable” and “open to manipulation”.

The hearing was told that Ms Robinson had contacted him outside her work hours without clinical justification, breaching professional boundaries.

She accepted they had a “brief relationship” between March and June 2022, the panel heard.

Members were told that Ms Robinson had left nursing in March 2022 and had since gone on to work at an organisation in West Yorkshire providing drug and alcohol recovery support, a role which “involves working with vulnerable members of society”.

They were also told her current employer was aware of the case against her and that she had completed training relating to safeguarding and professional boundaries.

Suspending Ms Robinson from the nursing register for a year, the panel said while she had “provided evidence of developing insight, remorse and reflection”, there remained “insufficient evidence of full remediation”.

“Further remediation work and strengthened practice is required and therefore there remains a real risk of harm to the public and repetition of the conduct should Ms Robinson be permitted to practise unrestricted,” they added.

The suspension order would be reviewed after 12 months, the panel said.