Nursing and Midwifery Council determination — substantive hearing

NMC panel cautions nurse George Stae for 12 months over Facebook Pride post emojis

A Nursing and Midwifery Council panel has issued a 12-month caution order to adult nurse George Eduard Stae, finding that emojis he posted under a public Facebook Pride post in 2021 were discriminatory. The NMC offered no evidence on separate charges alleging threatening remarks to a doctor.

MedicWatch editorial · Published 31 July 2026 · Updated 18 August 2026

Warning (formally warned) — 1 year

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What does “formally warned” mean?

A formal warning is a note on the practitioner's record. It does not restrict practice but tells the public that the regulator considered the conduct to have fallen below expected standards.

Concerning George Eduard Stae, nurse (Nursing and Midwifery Council 14K0428C).

Decision date: 31 July 2026 · Hearing started 16 July 2026 and ended 31 July 2026

In plain English

The NMC found that nurse George Eduard Stae posted vomiting and nausea emojis on a public Facebook post about Pride in June 2021, and that this was discriminatory towards people based on their sexuality or gender identity. The NMC offered no evidence on charges that he made threatening and racially offensive remarks to a doctor. The panel found his fitness to practise impaired on public interest grounds and imposed a 12-month caution order.

Charges

Charges 1 and 2 alleged that on 27 November 2022 Mr Stae used threatening and/or intimidating words towards a doctor, and that those words were offensive and/or discriminatory on the grounds of the subject's race and/or religion or belief, and racially motivated. The NMC offered no evidence on charges 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 2a and 2b and the panel accepted that application, so no findings were made on them. Charge 3, admitted and found proved: 'On 1 June 2021 commented with emojis associated with vomiting and or nausea on a public Facebook post about Pride month.' Charge 4, as amended and found proved: 'Your actions in charge 3 above were discriminatory in that you posted emojis on a Facebook Pride post which were prejudicial and or discriminatory towards people based on their sexuality and/or gender identity.'

Findings

The panel refused to admit the referring doctor's witness statement as hearsay, holding it was the sole and decisive evidence of charges 1 and 2 and that admitting it would be unfair. The NMC then offered no evidence on those charges. Charge 3 was proved by admission and charge 4 was found proved: the panel was satisfied that posting six nauseated face emojis and four vomiting face emojis under a public Facebook Pride post expressed discriminatory and prejudicial attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community. The panel found the conduct amounted to misconduct. It determined the misconduct was an isolated incident, not indicative of a deep-seated attitudinal issue, remedied and highly unlikely to be repeated, so no finding of impairment was necessary on public protection grounds. It found fitness to practise currently impaired on public interest grounds only. The panel imposed a caution order for 12 months, the minimum available duration, rejecting the NMC's submission for a six-month suspension order as wholly disproportionate.

Mitigating factors

The panel took into account the following mitigating factors: your early admission of the facts; your direct apologies to your LGBTQ+ colleagues and the remorse you demonstrated; your efforts (both in terms of your insight and detailed reflections) to ensure that no such incident would occur again; the fact that you have worked safely and professionally for five years in the same or similar role since the events causing concern; relevant training courses undertaken on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and Unconscious Bias; your detailed reflective accounts which the panel had seen and the reflective account to which Ms Beasley had referred positively in her evidence; and your personal circumstances at the time of the incident.

Aggravating factors

The panel did not find any aggravating factors. It rejected the NMC's suggested aggravating factors of abuse of a position of trust and deliberate breach of the Code, finding that Mr Stae was not acting in his capacity as a nurse and that the posting was an emotional response rather than a deliberate breach.

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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