Nursing and Midwifery Council determination — review hearing
Struck off the register
The regulator’s term: erasure
What does “struck off the register” mean?
Being struck off (the regulator calls this "erasure") removes the practitioner from the register. They are no longer permitted to practise this profession in the UK. Erasure can be reviewed after a minimum of five years, but is otherwise indefinite.
Concerning Ruffa Hernandez, nurse (Nursing and Midwifery Council 21K0204O).
Decision date: 8 April 2026 · Hearing started 8 April 2026
In plain English
The NMC found that Ruffa Hernandez, a registered nurse, did not meet the standards of knowledge, skill and judgment expected of a Band 5 nurse. Between August 2022 and June 2023 she made multiple medication and care errors, including incorrect insulin doses, a missed pressure sore, poor handovers, and an inaccurate insulin administration record. She was suspended for 12 months in April 2025. At today's review she had not engaged with the NMC or shown any improvement, so the panel decided to strike her name off the register.
Charges
That, while a registered nurse at Worthington Hospital between August 2022 and June 2023, failed to demonstrate the standards of knowledge, skill and judgment required to practise without supervision as a Band 5 nurse. The proved charges spanned a wide range of fundamental nursing activities, including: administering paracetamol without ensuring the required four-hour gap between doses; not responding to a variable-rate insulin pump alarm in a timely manner; incorrectly drawing 13 units of insulin into a 100-unit syringe; not recording a blood-sugar reading before administering insulin; failing to identify and correctly assess a patient's pressure sore; redressing a necrotic foot wound without sterile gloves; inappropriately extracting insulin from an insulin pen using a needle through the rubber stopper; rushed and unclear handovers; poor time management; not following an aseptic technique; and inaccurately recording the time of an insulin administration. Charges concerning the inaccurate insulin record (charge 25) amounted to misconduct; the remaining charges amounted to lack of competence.
Findings
The original substantive panel on 17 April 2025 found Miss Hernandez's fitness to practise impaired by reason of both lack of competence and misconduct, and imposed a 12-month suspension order. At this first review on 8 April 2026, the panel found that Miss Hernandez had not engaged with the NMC, had provided no further evidence of insight or strengthened practice, and that the risk of repetition remained high. The review panel determined that her fitness to practise remained impaired on grounds of both public protection and public interest, and that no further suspension would serve any useful purpose. It directed the Registrar to strike her name from the register, the order to take effect on the expiry of the current suspension on 20 May 2026.
Source
All facts on this page are drawn from the publicly published Nursing and Midwifery Council determination linked below.MedicWatchdoes not editorialise the regulator’s findings.
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