A MENTAL health nurse told a patient with “suicidal thoughts” to travel to Switzerland so she could kill herself, it is alleged.
Cornelius O’Brien, 38, is charged with telling the patient to “take responsibility for your own life by travelling to Switzerland for the purposes of euthanasia”.
Nursing watchdogs could ban Mr O’Brien, who worked at a hospital in Glasgow at the time, from the profession if the charge is found proved.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has charged another two nurses in separate cases involving allegations of making inappropriate comments to patients or colleagues.
Ysanne Billson, who was working at a care home in Dumfries, is charged with commenting on the size of a patient’s penis in his presence.
And an Edinburgh care home manager, Charles Fraser, has been charged with branding colleagues “useless black bitches” and a “big heifer”.
“Euthanasia”
Mr O’Brien, from East Kilbride in South Lanarkshire, is charged with making the “euthanasia” comment at Gartnaval Royal Hospital in Glasgow on a date between 21 March and 5 April 2008.
He is said to have been working on the hospitals acute admissions ward at the time.
One of the NMC’s charges states he failed to make a record of his “discussions with her regarding her suicidal thoughts”.
He is further charged with telling the patient words to the effect: “Take responsibility for your own life by travelling to Switzerland for the purposes of euthanasia.”
Ms Billson, 57, is charged with failing to respect a patient’s dignity during a night shift in May 2010 at Cargenholm Care Centre, a nursing home in Dumfries.
She is said to have “commented on the size of his penis whilst he was present” and told colleagues if a patient was unable to relieve himself when sexually aroused she felt it would be her duty to assist.
She faces a separate charge of failing to examine a patient on a night shift in the same month.
Charles William Fraser faces nine charges of making inappropriate comments to or about staff with manager of Viewpark care Home in Edinburgh between December 2009 and January 2010.
These include telling a staff member “you have packed on the beef” and referring to another colleague as “that big heifer over there”.
He is said to have referred to unnamed members of staff as “useless black bitches” on another occasion, and using the phrase “I’ll hammer you” several times.
He is also charged with threatening to transfer a staff member to another care home, sending an inappropriate text message to a staff member and shouting at colleagues several times.
The three cases are scheduled to go before NMC conduct panels in February.
