A care home nurse who failed to report inappropriate sexual behaviour and later "lied about performing CPR on a dying resident" has been struck off.

Rosaline Appice, who worked at Kestrel Grove Residential and Nursing Home in Bushey Heath, has been taken off the register following a Nursing and Midwifery Council misconduct hearing.

A panel last month found a host of charges relating to two incidents at Kestrel Grove in 2017 had been proved.

Ms Appice was not present and was reported not to have responded to attempts by members of the panel to contact her.

The first incident related to Ms Appice’s failure to report a complaint of sexually inappropriate behaviour from one resident to another.

The panel heard how in February 2017, the home manager was investigating a safeguarding issue concerning a male resident’s behaviour towards a female.

A carer informed Ms Appice on January 15 that a male resident had touched a female resident in a sexual way.

But it was alleged Ms Appice, who was in charge of the night shift on January 15, did not raise the matter at the handover to the day staff or report the matter directly to the home manager.

As the manager was not informed, no safeguarding plan was initiated and a similar event took place a month later.

The second incident is alleged to have occurred during the night shift of 30 July 2017, involving the death of a resident.

It is alleged that the resident was found in bed "cold and pale" and experiencing breathing difficulties.

When the resident was attended to by Ms Appice, it is alleged that she did not call for an ambulance, nor did she perform CPR.

A night-care assistant, described by the panel as a "reliable and credible witness", told the panel she did not see Ms Appice carry out CPR on the resident, but the panel heard that Ms Appice wrote in a letter on August 23, 2017 that she had administered CPR.

Meanwhile in her evidence, the acting matron at Kestrel Grove stated that it was the home’s policy to call an emergency ambulance in circumstances such as this.

The staff nurse stated during the handover the following morning, Ms Appice told a registered nurse "there wasn’t enough time to call an ambulance anyway".

The panel also noted Appice’s responses during disciplinary meeting, when she was questioned as to why she did not call an ambulance.

Appice was noted as saying "maybe it was shock; there was no time to call".

Furthermore, it is alleged when Ms Appice contacted a doctor, who later attended to confirm the death of the resident, she incorrectly told the doctor the resident was subject to a do not attempt resuscitation (DNAR) notice.

The panel determined Ms Appice incorrectly identified the resident was subject to a DNAR and as a result, did not carry out CPR. On realising her mistake, Ms Appice "dishonestly attempted to cover her mistake" by saying she had administered chest compressions, when in fact she had not done so.

It is further alleged Ms Appice contacted the family of a resident with the same last name as that of the deceased and mistakenly informed them their relative was "deteriorating".

When that mistake was realised, it is alleged Ms Appice failed to call that residents’ family in a "timely manner" to correct her mistake.

Presenting her case between May 10 and 14 this year, Helen Guest from the Nursing and Midwifery Council, invited the panel to consider a striking off order for Ms Appice, who did not attend the hearing.

She submitted that Ms Appice’s misconduct included a "deliberate breach of the duty of candour and that she sought to cover up when things went wrong".

Ms Guest submitted that in this case, the aggravating factors included Ms Appice’s "failure to correct her initial errors", her "lack of candour", and the fact that this was not the first finding of "dishonesty" against her.

Ms Appice was given a caution by the Nursing and Midwifery Council in 2012 for dishonestly taking a television belonging to a resident at River Court in Watford.

Ms Guest stated Appice had displayed a "lack of any real insight, remorse, reflection, or remediation" regarding the incidents.

All of the allegations against Ms Appice were found by the panel to be proven and the panel determined the only "appropriate and proportionate" sanction was to issue a striking off order.

The panel considered this order was "necessary to mark the importance of maintaining public confidence in the profession, and to send to the public and the profession a clear message about the standard of behaviour required of a registered nurse".

The full report can be read here.