Nursing and Midwifery Council determination — substantive hearing
NMC strikes off nurse Cheryl Feltner over inappropriate relationship with 16-year-old
A Nursing and Midwifery Council panel has struck registered nurse Cheryl Lee Feltner from the register after finding she entered an inappropriate personal relationship with a vulnerable 16-year-old she had cared for and encouraged them to abscond from their care home.
MedicWatch editorial · Published 5 June 2026 · Updated 7 July 2026
Erasure (struck off the register)
Added to MedicWatch: 7 July 2026Report a correction
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 Cheryl Lee Feltner, nurse (Nursing and Midwifery Council 07K0854E).
Decision date: 5 June 2026 · Hearing started 1 June 2026 and ended 5 June 2026
In plain English
The NMC's Fitness to Practise Committee found that registered nurse Cheryl Lee Feltner's fitness to practise was impaired by reason of misconduct. The panel found she had entered an inappropriate personal relationship with a vulnerable 16-year-old she had cared for, contacted them without clinical justification, encouraged them to abscond from their care home, and given them money. Finding a real risk of repetition, it made a striking-off order.
Charges
The charges alleged that Ms Feltner, who had been working as a mental health liaison nurse, had from 13 February 2024 contacted Person A - a 16-year-old she had cared for, who was subject to a Deprivation of Liberty order and had complex mental health needs - by text message and phone call without clinical justification, and entered into a personal relationship with them. On or around 26 March 2024, she was alleged to have encouraged Person A to abscond from their care home, given Person A details of her home address, invited Person A to her home, given them money, and, in a phone call, said words set out in a schedule which the panel described as hostile and confrontational. The panel found these charges proved, except the allegation that she gave Person A her home address, which it found not proved as the only evidence was hearsay.
Findings
The panel found the charges proved on the balance of probabilities from the documentary and witness evidence, including that the phone number used by 'Chelsea' matched Ms Feltner's number on file, and the evidence of a care worker who intercepted a call and heard others. It found her conduct fell far below the standards expected of a registered nurse and amounted to serious misconduct, showing a clear disregard for professional boundaries and for Person A's vulnerability and safety. Applying the Grant test, it found she had put a vulnerable young person at unwarranted risk of, and caused, psychological and emotional harm, breached fundamental tenets of the profession, and brought it into disrepute. It considered the concerns attitudinal in nature and, noting her limited insight, lack of remorse, tendency to deflect blame, and absence of any engagement or remediation since May 2024, found a real risk of repetition. It found her fitness to practise currently impaired on both public protection and public interest grounds.
Mitigating and aggravating factors
Mitigating factors
The panel took into account the following mitigating features: difficult personal circumstances at the material time, together with two further mitigating matters that were recorded in private in the determination.
Aggravating factors
The panel took into account the following aggravating features: abuse of a position of trust; and that the misconduct involved a highly vulnerable minor.
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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