Nursing and Midwifery Council determination — substantive hearing
NMC panel imposes 18-month conditions order on nurse Elaine Ward over medication errors
The Nursing and Midwifery Council's Fitness to Practise Committee has placed an 18-month conditions of practice order on children's nurse Elaine Paula Ward after finding she gave medication to the wrong child and administered a nasogastric feed when the pH level was too high.
MedicWatch editorial · Published 15 June 2026 · Updated 8 July 2026
Conditions on practice (practising with restrictions) — 18 months
Added to MedicWatch: 8 July 2026Report a correction
What does “practising with restrictions” mean?
Conditions of practice allow the practitioner to keep working but only subject to specific restrictions — for example, supervision, limits on certain procedures, or required reporting to the regulator.
Concerning Elaine Paula Ward, nurse (Nursing and Midwifery Council 98I6081E).
Decision date: 15 June 2026 · Hearing started 11 June 2026 and ended 15 June 2026
In plain English
The NMC's Fitness to Practise Committee found that Elaine Paula Ward, a children's nurse in Dorset, gave medication meant for one child to another without verifying the patient's identity, recorded the medicine as given when it was not, and administered a milk feed through a nasogastric tube when the pH level was too high. The panel found her fitness to practise impaired and imposed an 18-month conditions of practice order.
Charges
That, as a registered nurse, on 13 May 2022 she failed to verify Patient B's identity before administering medication, administered medication to Patient B that was meant for Patient A, and failed to administer medication to Patient A; on 20 May 2022 she administered milk via a nasogastric tube to Patient C when the pH level was too high; and she recorded in Patient A's MAR chart that medication had been administered when it had not. Charges that she failed to check Patient C's stomach pH level, failed to record details of the incorrectly administered medication, and failed to complete the nasogastric tube confirmation record were found not proved.
Findings
The panel found charges 1a, 1b, 1c, 2b and 3b proved and charges 2a, 3a and 3c not proved. It determined the proved conduct amounted to serious professional misconduct: failing to undertake basic patient identification checks led to amoxicillin being given to the wrong child, and administering a nasogastric feed when the pH level was above the accepted threshold created a risk of aspiration pneumonia to a vulnerable infant, although no actual harm occurred. Finding limited insight and no evidence of completed remediation, the panel found her fitness to practise impaired on public protection and public interest grounds and imposed an 18-month conditions of practice order, with an interim conditions of practice order for 18 months to cover any appeal period.
Mitigating and aggravating factors
Mitigating factors
Early admission in respect of some of the concerns; a challenging working environment; one further mitigating feature was recorded privately.
Aggravating factors
Conduct which recklessly puts people receiving care at risk of suffering harm; absence of or limited insight; vulnerability of the patients receiving care.
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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