Nursing and Midwifery Council determination — substantive hearing

NMC panel suspends nurse Phylicia Sheriff for four months over slap on colleague

A Nursing and Midwifery Council panel has suspended nurse Phylicia Sheriff for four months after finding she deliberately slapped a colleague on the cheek during a handover at North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust. The panel found the slap impulsive and out of character.

MedicWatch editorial · Published 30 July 2026 · Updated 31 July 2026

Suspension (suspended from practice) — 4 months

Added to MedicWatch: 31 July 2026Report a correction

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 Phylicia Khadijatu Sheriff, nurse (Nursing and Midwifery Council 98H0721E).

Decision date: 30 July 2026 · Hearing started 23 July 2026 and ended 30 July 2026

In plain English

The NMC's Fitness to Practise Committee found that registered nurse Phylicia Khadijatu Sheriff slapped a colleague on the cheek during a handover at North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust on 29 May 2024. Ms Sheriff admitted the charge. The panel found the slap was deliberate but impulsive and out of character, and decided her insight needed further development. It suspended her registration for four months and imposed an 18-month interim suspension order covering the appeal period.

Charges

That Ms Sheriff, a Registered Nurse, on 29 May 2024 slapped colleague A on the cheek, and that in light of the above her fitness to practise is impaired by reason of her misconduct. The charge arose while she was employed as a Band 6 registered nurse by North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust, which referred her to the NMC on 21 June 2024. The NMC's case was that during a handover in the Trust's Critical Care Unit a colleague, Jhunnie Balajadia, coughed near Ms Sheriff, was asked not to do so again, coughed a second time, and was then slapped on the face. Two colleagues witnessed the incident.

Findings

Ms Sheriff admitted charge 1 and the panel found it proved. It heard live evidence from three NMC witnesses and from Ms Sheriff in order to resolve the disputed context. The panel found she had slapped Ms Balajadia with the palm of her hand with sufficient force to cause pain, leaving a mark, and that the contact was deliberate rather than accidental, though impulsive rather than premeditated or planned. It preferred the accounts of the two independent witnesses and found that Ms Sheriff had sought to minimise her wrongdoing. The panel found breaches of Code paragraphs 1.1, 1.2, 20.1, 20.3, 20.5 and 20.8 and concluded the conduct amounted to misconduct. On impairment, it found limbs (a) to (c) of the Grant test engaged, and found no deep-seated attitudinal concerns, but held that insight required further development and that a risk of repetition remained. Impairment was found on both public protection and public interest grounds.

Mitigating factors

Early admission of the charge; apology to the colleague affected; evidence that she has worked safely and professionally in the same role since the events causing concern; relevant training courses; reflective accounts produced; an otherwise unblemished 24 year career. Further personal mitigation was heard in private under Rule 19.

Aggravating factors

Limited insight; failure to work collaboratively with a colleague; caused physical and emotional harm to a colleague; minimised the seriousness of the conduct.

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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