A former care home worker who slept on the job, put an elderly resident to bed fully clothed and swore at a colleague has been disciplined.
Shona MacPherson has had a four-year warning put on her registration after the Scottish Social Services Council found she put clients “at harm”.
The watchdog said she had been guilty of “very poor practice” while working night shifts at Clashfarquhar House in Stonehaven in 2013.
She failed to put a motion sensor outside the female resident’s door, did not get her undressed for bed and neglected to change her incontinence pad, a three-day hearing last week was told.
A colleague said she saw her asleep on duty on two occasions and that on another night she did not take off the same resident’s bra or a night dress which belonged to someone else.
The panel did not accept her explanation that she had not got the woman ready for bed properly because she was reluctant to ask for help from colleagues, who she had seen be “violent” towards the resident.
She also made a late bid to argue – in vain – that to get her undressed by force would have been a breach of human rights.
The panel instead believe the account of a “credible and reliable” colleague – at whom she swore and told: “You’re no the matron in here”.
Delivering its verdict, the SSSC told MacPherson that it was “unable to accept your explanation” that she had “lost confidence” in colleagues.
“You failed to grasp the seriousness of your failure to provide adequate care to AA”, the panel said in their findings, while noting she had “shown no regret nor apologised”.
“You allowed your personal difficulties with your work colleagues to get in the way of your duty to provide care,” it went on.
MacPherson – who had an otherwise clean record and produced two testimonials – denied sleeping on the job and insisted she only closed her eyes “for a short while” on her break.
The SSSC concluded: “Your treatment of the service user was an incident of very poor practice.
“Whilst it did not cause actual harm to her, it had the potential to do so.
“You also failed to treat AA with dignity and respect.”
MacPherson left the role a year after the incidents and has not had a formal care role since.
