Nursing and Midwifery Council determination — substantive hearing
Practising with restrictions — 1 year
The regulator’s term: conditions on practice
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 Sara Morrissey, nurse (Nursing and Midwifery Council 97I4456E).
Decision date: 21 April 2026 · Hearing started 7 April 2026 and ended 21 April 2026
In plain English
The NMC found that Sara Morrissey, a registered nurse, did not switch on a vulnerable patient's ventilator while moving them to a chair in July 2020. The patient's lips turned blue before staff noticed and turned the machine on. Mrs Morrissey did not record the incident or hand it over to the next nurse. The panel decided her fitness to practise is impaired and imposed a 12-month conditions of practice order, including supervised retraining.
Charges
On 12 July 2020, while caring for Patient A, a vulnerable patient requiring constant ventilation: (1) failed to switch Patient A's dry circuit ventilator on, or alternatively failed to notice it had switched off; (2) failed to identify Patient A's deteriorating condition in a timely manner; (3) in respect of the dry circuit ventilator not being switched on for a period of time: (a) failed to document it in Patient A's notes and/or make a record of it; (b) did not carry out additional checks and/or seek medical advice following the incident; (c) did not provide details of the incident in the handover to a colleague; (d) did not report the incident to Secure Healthcare Solutions. By reason of the above, fitness to practise was alleged to be impaired by reason of misconduct.
Findings
The panel found charges 1, 2 and 3b proved on the balance of probabilities, and charges 3a, 3c and 3d proved by Mrs Morrissey's own admissions. The panel found that the proved facts (other than charge 3b) amounted to misconduct, breaching provisions of the NMC Code including 1.2, 1.4, 8.2, 8.5, 8.6, 10.2, 13.1 and 20.1. The panel determined that Mrs Morrissey's fitness to practise is currently impaired on grounds of both public protection and public interest. It found there was a risk of repetition because Mrs Morrissey has only developing insight, has not strengthened her practice, and has not worked as a registered nurse since October 2022.
Mitigating and aggravating factors
Mitigating factors
Mrs Morrissey made partial admissions to the facts; she demonstrated remorse.
Aggravating factors
Mrs Morrissey's limited insight; the vulnerability of Patient A; the potential for serious harm.
Source
All facts on this page are drawn from the publicly published Nursing and Midwifery Council determination linked below.MedicWatchdoes not editorialise the regulator’s findings.
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