Nurses back at work after injury hearing

THREE nurses who accidently injured a colleague when a prank went wrong returned to work yesterday after a disciplinary hearing.

The nurses’ union, however, refused to comment on the outcome of the hearing which followed an incident in which a nurse suffered a serious eye injury at the Accident and Emergency department of Cork University Hospital.

The three nurses were suspended from work after the incident on October 31. But details only became public yesterday ahead of the disciplinary hearing.

A nurse working in the emergency department was about to leave for Australia when three colleagues — some of whom were male nurses — decided to play a prank on her.

They filled a syringe with a “hibiscrub”, used for washing hands and planned to squirt her with the liquid. But she was hit in one of her eyes and suffered a serious injury. It is understood her sight in the affected eye was threatened at one stage.

The nurse who was injured has since left for Australia. The Health Service Executive (HSE) said in a statement yesterday that she has recovered well but will continue to be monitored.

The three nurses attended a HSE disciplinary hearing yesterday morning with a representative from the Irish Nurses’ Organisation (INO).

The INO representative and officials at the INO headquarters in Dublin declined to comment in detail afterwards.

The union official based in Cork said the matter was now resolved and refused to comment further.

She said she did not believe it was in the public interest for the matter to be highlighted further.

The HSE also declined to comment in detail. A spokesperson said the appropriate industrial relations processes had been followed.

It is understood that a petition organised by A&E colleagues calling for the reinstatement of the three nurses was circulated in the hospital over the last number of weeks.