SELIK: NURSE STRUCK OFF OVER AFFAIR
A mental health nurse has been thrown out of the profession for having an affair with a patient.
Linda Selik, 53, told colleagues she thought she was falling in love with the man when he was being treated at Lynfield Mount Hospital in Bradford in May 2006.
They warned Selik not to act on her feelings as she could lose her job, but the pair later met up to kiss and cuddle each other.
She was later dismissed from her job following a disciplinary meeting.
The nurse, of Bradford, West Yorkshire, had denied having an inappropriate relationship with Patient A when he got out of hospital.
But a Nursing and Midwifery Council panel found her guilty of the charge after hearing she met up with the man on several occasions and took him back to her house for coffee.
Selik was banned from working as a nurse for two years at the original hearing in September 2009.
She was struck off at a review hearing yesterday when the panel found she had submitted no evidence to show she was now fit to practise.
Panel chairman John Williams said: ‘In reviewing the case today the panel was disappointed that the registrant had again failed to engage either by attending or by supplying any response at all in correspondence.
‘This demonstrates a continued lack of insight into the seriousness of her misconduct and the potential consequences.
‘There is a fundamental power imbalance in a nurse allowing a relationship to develop with a vulnerable patient.
‘Therefore the panel has concluded that the appropriate and proportionate sanction is a striking off order.’
The patient, known only as patient A, was being treated at the Oakburn Ward for drug and alcohol addiction.
Selik has not worked as a nurse since losing her job in 2007.
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