Stress of fitness to practice inquiries ‘has driven nurses to suicide’

THE stress of facing a fitness to practice inquiry has led to hospitalisation, and even suicide of nurses, and the situation will worsen if inquiries are held in public, nurses heard yesterday.

Delegates attending the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) annual conference in Co Meath spoke of the “unbearable stress” colleagues endure when they are the subject of a complaint to An Bord Altranais, the nursing regulatory body.

INMO director of organisation and social policy Clare Treacy said she had heard of two suicides in the past three years involving nurses who were due to undergo an FTP inquiry. She also knew of a woman who died of a heart attack within 24 hours of receiving the book of evidence, she said. The woman had retired from the Health Service Executive (HSE) and had taken a job in a local nursing home, when a complaint was made relating to all the nurses. Two years later, the INMO received a copy of the book of evidence, as did the woman.

“I rang her, her daughter said she had died within 24 hours of receiving the book of evidence. Her daughter genuinely believed that was why she got a heart attack,” Ms Treacy said.

Ms Treacy said the INMO did not support a proposal in the new Nurses and Midwives Bill 2010, to hold FTP inquiries – currently held in camera – in public.

Jean O’Connell, chairwoman of the Cork HSE branch of the INMO, said nurses had become “physically and emotionally ill, some requiring hospitalisation, some attempting suicide,” over the prospect of an FTP. She said holding inquiries in public would give power to “treat us like common criminals, with tabloids serialising our distress, even if proven innocent”. Ms Tracy said public hearings would also mean intimate matters of care could end up in the public arena and that the cost of defending nurses was also likely to soar.

Ms Treacy said the new bill also failed to define what constituted “inappropriate behaviour” a matter currently before the High Court. She said the number of complaints to An Bord Altranais had increased 100% since 2006, when 19 complaints were made against INMO members compared with 44 last year. Complaints include alcohol/drug addiction, self-administration of drugs, forged prescriptions, alleged failure to provide appropriate care and unprofessional conduct. Ms Treacy said the INMO believed the current An Bord Altranais structures were robust enough in dealing with complaints against nurses.

The new bill was also criticised by INMO president Sheila Dickson who said that giving the proposed 23-member board (reduced from 29) a lay majority did “not amount to independence”.

“This is tantamount to the Government wanting to control and direct an independent statutory body,” Ms Dickson said.

Health Minister Mary Harney hopes the bill would be enacted before the summer recess.