Mrs Owen was employed as a registered nurse at Norway Lodge Nursing Home in Birkenhead. She worked there for over three years before she was dismissed in November 2023 following an investigation into her conduct.
The decision to strike her off the register was made following a misconduct hearing on December 1 which Mrs Owen did not attend.
Charges against the former nurse included on October 12 2023 Mrs Owen “pushed medication into Resident A’s mouth”, shouted at them, and “threatened to call Resident A’s wife so that he would be in trouble.” This was reported to a healthcare assistant by the resident who at the time felt “he was going to choke”.
Mrs Owen denied the accusations. The panel found Mrs Owen pushed medication into the resident’s mouth but not the accusation of shouting or threat to call the wife.
On October 18 2023, the nurse was accused of giving medication to a second resident without water, and dabbed a steroid and/or hormonal medication onto them and asked him to rub it in without giving him gloves. These charges were proved.
The resident said: “Instead of handing him his medication as he requested, Mrs Owen just put the medication down his throat without providing any juice or water.” Mrs Owen denied this.
She was also charged with feeding another resident to increase their sugar levels on October 18. This resident raised concerns with the home manager at the time and the charge was proved by the panel.
This resident, who has diabetes, said Mrs Owen “will load me up with biscuits, cakes etc until [it is] has high as she wants it. Even when I feel [okay] and my level are [okay], she forces me in a way.”
After this, interviews were carried out with all care home residents who had the mental capacity to be asked about Mrs Owen’s alleged behaviour.
On an unknown date, Owen gave another resident medication by “pushing one or more tablets into his mouth at a time” and “pushing it against his lips before he had swallowed previous medication”. Concerns were raised about this resident’s testimony due to a dementia diagnosis but the evidence was accepted.
The care home manager said the resident had complained “Mrs Owen had tried to force medication against his lips” and at the time threatened to bite Mrs Owen “if she carried on shoving tablets down my mouth”. In her defence, Mrs Owen said she had “always been careful when administering his medication” but the panel found the charge against her proved.
The panel said the three residents were vulnerable and Mrs Owen’s conduct towards three residents put them at “a potential risk of physical harm due to the way she administered their medication”. The panel said there was no evidence of any insight or remorse from Mrs Owen.
They added: “Mrs Owen’s actions were unacceptable and breached
multiple aspects of the code. It was of the view that her actions would be considered deplorable by fellow practitioners.”
The panel decided to strike Mrs Owen off the register and was of the view she was “liable to repeat her actions in the future”. The panel believed “the way Mrs Owen delivered care was evidence of harmful deep-seated attitudinal problems”.
