Nurse suspended after forcing medication into patient’s mouth

A nurse has been suspended for three months by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) after forcing medication into a person with dementia's mouth.

An NMC Fitness to Practise (FtP) panel found Reni Kirilova had forced medicine into the patient’s mouth, held her mouth closed and shouted ‘take your tablets’ while working at the Chocolate Quarter Care Home in Bristol, run by the St Monica Trust.

Patient was reportedly distressed, waving her hands and shouting

The incident occurred on 30 May 2019, seven days after Ms Kirilova began working at the care home on 23 May. She was suspended on 7 June pending a police investigation and she resigned the same day.

One witness told the NMC hearing that they saw the nurse’s fingers go over the patient’s mouth for around 30 seconds while the patient was ‘flapping her hands’ and ‘trying to spit them out’.

They added the patient was distressed and was ‘waving her hands everywhere’ and shouting ‘no, no, no’.

Ms Kirilova denied the allegations and said that she had given the patient some water and then tilted the patient’s chin to help her swallow.

The panel found that the allegation she held her hand over the patient’s mouth was not true but that she had held it closed in some way, after three witnesses corroborated this.

The panel said they were not satisfied that she had considered how she would cope with stressful situations in the future and there was a risk it could happen again.

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Source: Nursing Standard, 7 April 2022