A NURSE yelled ‘don’t nip my boobs’ when an elderly dementia patient pawed at her breasts, a tribunal heard.

Joanne Edmundson, a nurse on the critical care ward at Royal Blackburn Hospital, also lost her temper when the woman soiled herself during the same shift, the hearing was told.

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Edmundson admits shouting the comment about the woman to a colleague within earshot of other patients.

The nurse, who has 21 years’ experience, said she had received some ‘bad news’ the day before the incident on February 14 last year, and probably should have taken some time off.

A few weeks later on March 2, she made a derogatory remark about a second patient being lazy as she was recovering from major surgery on the unit, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.

Douglas Lloyd, for the NMC, said: “With regards to Patient B, the registrant has stated that the words were taken out of context, alth-ough she does accept her words were inappr-opriate.”

He added: “Patient B was a long-term colleague of hers, a colleague who had become a patient because she had had an operation, so the registrant and the patient were familiar with each other.

“It’s indicated by the registrant that she regarded the colleague as a friend and says that the comments were made as a poor joke and also as a defence against comments from others that the colleague was lazy.”

Edmundson admits all charges against her, but claims it was easy for patients to hear comments made to colleagues because it was a small unit.

She was dismissed from her post of 14 years following the two incidents, although she has been working as a nurse else-where. Mr Lloyd said: “There is no evidence of other attitudinal issues or mistreatment of patients, and the registrant has co-operated with the NMC’s investigation.

“This is not a registrant that requires further res-trictions on her practice.

“She didn’t emerge from the incident unscathed, and indeed she was dismissed from a position she had held for some time, but you need to decide whether her fitness to practice is curr-ently impaired.”

If her fitness to practice is found to be impaired in light of her admissions, Edmundson could face a ban.

The hearing continues.