Nurse with own cannabis farm sacked

A NURSE at a Doncaster care home in the UK has been struck off after he was caught with his own cannabis farm.

Problems started for Rodney Gwamba when he verbally abused a woman at the Old Rectory Nursing Home in Armthorpe, Doncaster, over a love bite on her neck.

He initially pretended he did not know what the word he had used meant and had to be told it was highly insulting in South Yorkshire.

Gwamba's bosses then discovered the nurse had been given a police caution for running the drugs farm and stealing electricity to power it.

The nurse, originally from Zimbabwe, also failed to give five patients drugs while stating he had administered the drugs in records, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.

Frances Cottle, for the NMC, said Gwamba made comments to Lianne Crookes when he saw the love-bite on her neck.

Nigel Clayton, deputy care home manager, said Gwamba had been told what the ‘Doncaster interpretation' of the word meant.
"He used it a second time and there is no excuse for that," he said.

Gwamba also failed to record the use of drugs, described as highly addictive and very sought after, which Clayton said could be sold for a substantial sum on the street.

He was also found to have not attended the necessary first aid training after starting his employment at the home and failed to properly give residents their medicine at the right time between December 2008 and April 2009.

Gwamba did not check emergency equipment in the care centre to ensure they were clean and safe, but marked the jobs as being done.
As he did not tell the home about the police caution for growing cannabis he was also found to be dishonest.
Panel chairwoman Jackie Pearce said Gwamba fell ‘well short of the standards required of a nurse in the circumstances.'

She added that there was clear evidence of dishonest behaviour in a various of forms and that ‘there is a risk that this type of behaviour might be repeated in the future.'

Pearce said: "The misconduct in this case and the breach of numerous relevant standards was so serious as to be fundamentally incompatible with Gwamba's name remaining on the register."

http://www.newzimbabwe.com 17/12/2011