MDZINWA: PATIENT OUTRAGED WITH LAVATORY BRUSH

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Nursing and Midwifery Council/anna rushworth
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3 May 2007

brush…1

A nurse used the sharp end of a toilet brush to attempt a delicate personal manouvre on an elderly care home resident, a misconduct hearing was told.

Princess Mdzinwa, 51, (corr) was caught in the bathroom of the Four Seasons Care Home in Shawcross, Wigan, Lancs, poking the object into the woman’s backside.

Mdzinwa was holding the brush end in one hand and was using a plastic medical waste bag on the other as a make-shift glove, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.

When confronted by her manager the South African replied that she didn’t think she was doing anything wrong and if she had been outside she would have used a stick.

Giving evidence Val Kendal, the home’s manager, said of the incident.

‘The “nurse” in inverted comas was holding a toilet brush with the brush end in her hand and she had a yellow clinical waste bag in her hand and she was poking the resident.

‘The bag had faeces on it, the end of the toilet brush was covered in faeces.

‘She said that she had ‘got no gloves’, that was her response.’

Mrs Kendal said she ordered Mdzinwa to clean up before speaking to her.

She then asked Mdzinwa what she would have done if there was no toilet brush.

‘She said if she had been outside she would have used a stick.’

Mrs Kendal said Mdzinwa had been at the home for several months and had an induction and would have known the act went against the home’s policy.

Rachel Flinn, a former care assistant at the home, told the NMC that she had tried to stop Mdzinwa.
 
‘She said she needed something to poke her with.

‘I told her that she couldn’t poke her with anything.

‘She was looking around for something to poke her with so I went to get the manager.’

Mdzinwa was suspended and then dismissed by the home.

She is not attending the central London hearing, and has returned to South Africa.

The resident, referred to as Mrs A, was an elderly sufferer of dementia.

Mrs A was agitated after the incident and taken away in a wheelchair.

If Mdzinwa is found guilty of misconduct she faces being struck off.

The hearing continues.
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