A care home nurse is in a bit of trouble after she set up a furniture obstacle course to prevent patients from leaving their rooms. And it was all so she could pop out for a sneaky ciggie.
A tribunal was held yesterday where it was revealed that Michelle Hartley used chairs, chests of drawers and sofas as her props. She arranged them in a sort of Fun House set up so that it would slow down any of the residents from Church Parade Care Home in Shropshire who might try to do a runner.
Apparently she led one of the mental health patients into an emergency suite and kept him in there by putting a sofa in his doorway and then slowed down another guy by filling his room up with chairs. Makes it sound like the residents are literally a bunch of zombies or something. I mean surely if they are able to get up and walk around, then they have the capability to climb over or move a chair.
Hartley has admitted that she did use the furniture as obstacles but has denied that the two patients mentioned were completely locked in. Matthew Cassells from the Nursing and Midwifery Council said that there was no denying that the furniture had been put in the doorways. He said:
They were placed by her with the intention of obstructing the patient.
It was done to restrict his movement, to slow his movement down.
Hartley noticed some broken drawers in the room and put them on the bed and put a sofa in the doorway.
A chair had been placed in front of the door but she said staff could still get in and out.
Hartley had stated that she could move the chair when coming and going.
She had put it there when a patient had come out of their room in a state of undress.
With all of this information out in the open, Hartley has reflected on her actions and assured that she would not set up a furniture obstacle course for her mental health patients again (would have thought that was a given).
The hearing is still going on so it’s not known what her punishment will be. But if they decide that this was just too much of a shitty thing to do then she could face being struck off altogether. And all that for a bloody cigarette? She should just quit – smoking sucks ass and here are five reasons why.
