Miss Libby Morris has been suspended by the RCVS Veterinary Nurse Disciplinary Committee after leaving a dog that was in her care at a Devon practice unattended for over two hours on Christmas Day, and covering it up dishonestly.

Miss Morris faced three charges. 

The first was that she left the post-operative German Shepherd unattended between 12.15pm and 2.30pm, made clinical records entries before leaving the practice indicating she’d made these entries at 2pm when she had not, and at 1.41pm sent a message to a veterinary surgeon colleague in which she purported to be providing contemporaneous updates about the dog’s condition and circumstances when she was not, in fact, with the animal.

The second charge alleged that her conduct from the first charge was potentially detrimental to the dog’s welfare, while the third charge alleged that the same conduct was dishonest and/or misleading.

Miss Morris admitted the majority of the charges, although she denied that she had made the clinical record dishonestly, saying that she had innocently omitted to correct a time entry she had earlier made in the records as a “prompt”.

After considering the evidence, the Committee found that she had been dishonest as she knowingly pre-entered the incorrect time in order to cover up for a period of absence from the practice.

The Committee then considered whether the charges amounted to serious professional misconduct.

In terms of aggravating factors, the Committee found that there was a real risk of injury to the animal caused by leaving it unattended when it was recovering from a serious emergency procedure, dishonesty, recklessness regarding the dog’s welfare, pre-meditated misconduct, breach of client trust and, breach of the position of trust and responsibility placed in her.

In mitigation, the Committee considered that this was a single isolated incident, that it concerned one animal, and that, although there was a risk of harm in leaving a vulnerable animal unattended, her actions did not directly lead to any harm coming to the animal.

Overall, it found that Miss Morris’s conduct would undermine the public trust and confidence placed in the veterinary nursing profession as a whole as well as bring the profession into disrepute and so found that her actions amounted to serious professional misconduct.

In deciding the most appropriate sanction, the Committee took into account a number of further mitigating factors. These were Miss Morris’s youth and inexperience at the time of the misconduct, her previously unblemished career, her open and frank admissions to the majority of the charges, her efforts to avoid repeating such behaviours, her efforts to remediate past misconduct, the significant lapse of time between the incident and the disciplinary hearing, her demonstration of insight into her misconduct, together with and positive personal character references and testimonials.

Mrs Judith Way, chairing the Committee and speaking on its behalf, said: “In deciding the proportionate sanction, the Committee considered the nature and extent of the dishonesty it had found proved.

"When considering where the dishonesty fell on a scale of dishonesty, it noted that the respondent had acted dishonestly within her practice as a veterinary nurse, on three clinical records, but that the dishonesty related to a single incident and one patient with the aim of extending her time away from the practice on Christmas Day.

"It therefore concluded that this could be described as middle ranging dishonesty (not the most or least serious type of dishonesty)."

Mrs Way added: “The Committee therefore concluded that, taking into account all of the above matters, a suspension of six months was the proportionate sanction required to meet the public interest in this case.

"It decided on a period of six months in order to send a signal to the veterinary nursing profession and the public about such conduct.

"In the Committee’s judgment, taking into account all of the above factors, a sanction of removal would be excessive and would not take sufficient account of the substantial mitigating factors.”

The full findings of the Disciplinary Committee can be found at www.rcvs.org.uk/disciplinary

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