Nursing and Midwifery Council determination — substantive hearing

Suspended from practice — 9 months

The regulator’s term: suspension

What does “suspended from practice” mean?

A suspension is a fixed-term pause on the right to practise. The practitioner cannot work in the regulated profession during the suspension. At the end of the period the suspension may be extended, replaced with another sanction, or lifted on review.

Concerning Deborah Stevenson, nurse (Nursing and Midwifery Council 18H2200E).

Decision date: 12 February 2026 · Hearing started 2 February 2026 and ended 12 February 2026

In plain English

The NMC's Fitness to Practise Committee imposed a suspension order on Deborah Stevenson, a registered adult nurse from Hampshire and Isle of Wight, on 12 February 2026. The committee found charges of misconduct proved including repeated breaches of professional boundaries with patients and bullying and harassment of colleagues while working as a Community Staff Nurse at Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust. The suspension order lasts 9 months.

Charges

While working as a Community Staff Nurse at Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust: failing to maintain professional boundaries with patients including inappropriate physical contact and personal disclosures; taking a patient's bank card to use for shopping; making inappropriate jokes; sharing personal phone number with a patient; shouting at a colleague; asking a colleague to make a complaint about another colleague; making inappropriate comments about a colleague's appearance and health condition; and bullying, intimidating and harassing behaviour towards colleagues. Multiple charges found proved.

Findings

The NMC's Fitness to Practise Committee found multiple charges of misconduct proved and determined that Deborah Stevenson's fitness to practise was impaired. The panel imposed a suspension order for 9 months. The panel found a pattern of misconduct over time, but determined that the misconduct was not fundamentally incompatible with continued registration and that there was a realistic prospect of remediation. An interim suspension order for 18 months was imposed pending the appeal period.

Mitigating factors

• Early admissions to some of the charges • Completion of mandatory training including safeguarding and conflict resolution • Written reflections, albeit limited and not always addressing the root causes of the misconduct • Positive testimonials from colleagues regarding current practice • Attendance and involvement throughout the proceedings

Aggravating factors

• Abuse of position of trust through repeated breaches of professional boundaries with patients, including inappropriate personal disclosures and physical boundary violations • Abuse of a position of power in relation to a more junior colleague, particularly in respect of certain charges • Bullying and harassment of colleagues within a healthcare setting • Failure to work collaboratively with colleagues, in breach of the Code • A pattern of misconduct over a period of time with different patients and different colleagues • Limited insight into the impact of behaviour and failure to address concerns raised at a local level • Risk of psychological and emotional harm to patients and colleagues, and the creation of an unsafe working environment

Source

All facts on this page are drawn from the publicly published Nursing and Midwifery Council determination linked below. MedicWatch does not editorialise the regulator’s findings.

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