the nurse struck off for whistleblowing

I believe this comes under the heading of "bringing the profession into disrepute" and so does carry some legal weight.

Morally, this should have no bearing on whether or not she can continue working as a nurse. This country needs much better procedures to safeguard whistle-blowers, otherwise people will continue to be scared to speak out and the culture of cover-ups will continue.

I saw this on the news a few weeks ago, at first I thought wtf? She was trying to do a good thing but then I thought about the filming of these people without their knowledge and consent and that's not right. Whether she should be struck off from nursing for life is another matter, it's a toughie. I feel very sorry for her though, hear heart was in the right place I think.

But if it highlights their plight, then surely that is the lesser of two evils.

Also, it should still have been possible to obtain their consent prior to broadcast, or at least disguise their identities - was this not done ?

According to the article (and that's the only thing I've read on it, apart from threads on other forums) consent was gained retrospectively. The case hinged on confidentiality - the shot of one man in the background who hadn't been approached to give consent to be shown. Which sounds like a bit of straw-clutching on the NMC's part.

If it's about bringing the profession into disrepute, surely it's the nurses and others who were causing this to happen who were doing that? The disreputable act is the mistreatment of patients, not telling someone about it. Bringing the profession into disrepute would be, oh I don't know, posting on your facebook wall "oops, just killed two old dears by mistake LOL!!!!!!!!" or posing in Nuts with nothing but your ID badge and a pair of gloves on ?

It's all wrong that bringing something to public attention, having failed to get a response through the legitimate channels, is punished.

Have the nurses filmed giving poor care been disciplined I wonder?

Having listened to 5 Live this morning, I think part of the NMC's beef is that the nurse in question did not exhaust the legitimate channels before she resorted to filming. According to the nurse, she had complained to her manager and the ward manager, but not, for example, to the Director of Nursing in the trust or the Chief Executive. Technically, she hadn't followed the trust's whistleblowing policy.

I think it is a shame a dedicated, caring nurse has been lost to the profession. I imagine she was fed up to the back teeth with the poor practices she was witnessing daily and felt compelled to act in a way in which she knew would have an impact. I imagine she felt a letter to the CE probably wasn't going to get results.

To clarify the position, the permission to film was gained retrospectively, although in many cases from the relatives of the patient who had subsequently died.

I feel really sorry for her. She acted in what she considered to be the best interests of the patients and is clearly a caring professional nurse, so at a time when the NHS can't get good nurses for the pittance they pay, it seems to be a case of shooting themselves in the foot.

Permission was gained from all the patients or their relatives. I think the NMC has acted really harshly. What's more, why the feck did it take 4 fricking years for them to sort it out? No ordinary trial lasts that long - the poor woman's life has been on hold all that time. And her actions resulted in that hospital pulling its socks up, which it clearly desperately needed.