WHALLEY: ANXIOUS WAIT FOR ‘BULLYING’ PRIVATE SCHOOL NURSE
A private school nurse accused of bullying workmates faces an anxious wait over the future of her career.
Jennifer Whalley allegedly criticised a colleague for overreacting when she tested a pupil who was later found to have swine flu faces.
She is said to have made the remarks while working as nurse in charge at the prestigious Wellington College in Crowthorne, Berkshire.
Whalley also interrupted a colleague’s consultation with a pupil about health risks on an upcoming trip to Malawi, the Nursing and Midwifery Council has heard.
African-born Whalley is said to have dismissed the risk of snail fever and claimed the government in the landlocked state had solved the problem.
Whalley is further accused of mixing up appointments and patient records, and of telling another colleague: ‘I run the medical centre and if you do not like it, perhaps you should start looking for another job’.
After she was suspended for bullying and incompetence, Whalley is said to have sent out a furious email reading: ‘I’m not about guidelines and risk assessments.
‘I’m about getting what’s right for my patient.’
She worked at the college, whose alumni include singer Will Young and impressionist Rory Bremner, between 2005 and 2010.
A misconduct hearing in central London ran out of time while considering the charges against the nurse and will resume next year.
The panel dismissed charges alleging Whalley prescribed stimulant Concerta to a student without taking adequate observations and emailing incorrect details about appointments to patients.
Charges that she did not advise an asthmatic patient with a respiratory infection not to play sport and issued prescriptions to patients who were not registered at the centre were also thrown out.
The hearing is due to resume for one day on March 8 next year, and then for a further seven days on April 29.
If found guilty of misconduct she could be kicked out of the profession.
Whalley resigned from her post but but has denied all the allegations against.
