A ‘dishonest and self-focused’ nurse who spent time working at a Huntingdon care home while suspended from practicing has been struck off.

Rosebella Odame received a suspension order from the Nursing and Midwifery

Council (NMC) on June 1, 2016, but in the months following she continued working as a nurse at two care homes.

A NMC hearing on May 4 heard that Miss Odame began working as a registered nurse at Wood Grange Care Home, in Bourne, through Quattro Healthcare, and later at Primrose Hill Care Home, in Thames Road, Huntingdon, through Intergrocare, despite the ban being in place.

Between August 1 and October 1, 2016, Miss Odame carried out 25 shifts at Primrose Hill Care Home, which, the panel said, “an honest and reasonable nurse would find deplorable”.

She had also worked as a nurse on 13 other occasions at the care home in Bourne.

Miss Odame, who was not in attendance at the hearing, sent an e-mail to the panel

explaining her actions, highlighting that she had taken the positions due to financial hardship.

In the e-mail, Miss Odame told the panel that she had joined a church, which she said had taught her about honesty and had given her an understanding of responsibility and morals.

But the panel considered that Miss Odame had “not shown evidence of insight into how her actions could impact patients and their families, colleagues, the nursing profession and the NMC, as a professional regulator”.

“Miss Odame showed a degree of remorse for her actions in her e-mail, but this was mainly self-focused,” the report added.

However, a further complaint was not upheld by the panel that Miss Odame worked for Apollo Home Healthcare as a nurse.

It was deemed from payslips, provided to the hearing, that she was being paid as a health care assistant, and not as a nurse. She had not, therefore, been in breach of her suspension order.

After considering all of the evidence, Miss Odame was struck off by the panel as a result of her work at the two care homes.

The report said: “Miss Odame’s actions and her persistent and repeated dishonesty were significant departures from the standards expected of a registered nurse, and are fundamentally incompatible with her remaining on the register.”

Miss Odame has 28 days to appeal the panel’s decision before the striking off order

comes into force.