COLEMAN: NURSE STRUCK OFF OVER 10-YEAR AFFAIR WITH PATIENT

A nurse who took her patient on a romantic trip to Paris after embarking on an affair with the paranoid schizophrenic aged more than ten years her junior has been struck off.

Terena Dawn Coleman, 56, told the man that she loved him and borrowed £3,000 from him during their secreet decade-long affair, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.

The patient, a paranoid schizophrenic in his late 30s, committed suicide last June – 20 months after the pair allegedly split up.

Panel chairman Stephen Barker said Coleman had ’embarked on a deliberate course of misconduct’ which was ‘fundamentally incompatible’ with remaining a registered nurse.

‘The panel considered that the behaviour was likely to cause emotional harm to patient A, who was a vulnerable patient,’ he said.

‘The conduct involved was not an isolated incident, but a course of conduct over a period of years.’

Though the nurse had admitted most of the charges, she had refused to accept that the relationship was sexual or that they had a romantic tryst in Paris, both of which the panel found proved.

Mr Barker ruled that a striking off order was ‘the only appropriate and proportionate sanction’ to protect patients and maintain public confidence in the profession.

Coleman and her patient are said to have met in 1997 while the nurse was working for the Plymouth NHS Teaching Primary Care Trust.

She left the trust in November 2003, having been on long-term sick leave for nearly 18 months.

Elizabeth Wheeler, for the NMC, said: ‘The NMC’s case is that the sexual relationship started from about 1997 to 1998 when Ms Coleman went to Patient A’s house, and continued from then onwards.

‘They were both in Paris in April 2002 and they met up one or two occasions during the visit.

‘Based on the evidence of Patient A, the relationship started in late 1997 to early 1998, while Ms Coleman was still his care coordinator.’

She added: ‘Patient A was a very vulnerable patient with whom Ms Coleman had a necessarily close relationship as his care coordinator.’

Ms Wheeler said the allegations came to light after Patient A told another nurse that he and Coleman had been in a ‘sexual relationship’.

‘He also indicated that she had entered into a financial relationship with him and he had loaned her £3,000,’ she said.

The nurse made a number of admission, but denied that her relationship with the patient had been sexual, though the panel found all the charges proved.

‘Ms Coleman denied having a sexual relationship with Patient A, meeting up with him in Paris and allowing him to stay in her home,’ Ms Wheeler has told the hearing.

‘She admits accepting a £3,000 loan around July 2005, when she was no longer Patient A’s care coordinator, and was repaying the patient at £87.89 per month.

‘Ms Coleman also admits she received jewellery from Patient A, worth £83.95 bought from Gems TV, on March 2, 2007.

‘She also agrees she gave him a watch and says it was a Christmas present, but the NMC’s case is that this was for his 30th birthday, in September 1999.’

The tribunal heard that the presents were exchanged on a number of occasions over a 10-year-period.

Coleman admitted sending Patient A text messages, visiting him at home, holding hands, hugging him and accompanying him to social occasions including a christening and a
wedding, but again only when she was not working with him.

The nurse also admits telling the patient she loved him, but again, insisted this was when they were no longer in a professional relationship.

Coleman had denied giving or receiving any gifts while she was Patient A’s care coordinator and further denied that she was engaged in a sexual relationship with the man.

But the panel found both charges proved, and ruled that she was not fit to practice due to her misconduct.

An interim suspension order was also imposed until the striking off order takes effect, for the protection of the public and in the public interest.

ENDS