A NURSE who manhandled a resident at a Burnley care home and threatened to give her a 4am bath has been suspended from the profession for six months by her professional watchdog.

Angela Bickerstaff was dealing with an elderly woman, who was incontinent, when she lost her temper and said: “Shut up lady, people are trying to sleep", a Nursing and Midwifery Council hearing was told.

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“If you carry on you’ll be going in the bath at 4am and you’ll be screaming, not singing.”

Bickerstaff was also said to have ‘forcefully pushed’ another resident out of a dining area at Dove Court, off Colne Road, while she was trying to clean, a NMC misconduct panel was told.

The nurse, who was said to have more than 30 years of experience, was not present at the disciplinary proceedings in London.

She had denied the allegations all the way throughout an internal investigation and appeal at the BUPA-run home, which she believed were ‘unfair’ on her.

Richard Paton-Phillip, for the NMC, said that on a night shift an eyewitness confirmed she failed to wash a resident who had been incontinent.

Staff also watched as the resident was put back to bed using ‘excessive force’ on more than one occasion, and removed her from a bedroom by pulling her arm, before making the comments about the bath.

Mr Paton-Phillip said the next day Bickerstaff pushed a second resident, while cleaning a kitchen area, ‘when it was not clinically justified’.

The three-strong misconduct panel found all three of the main charges proved.

Panel chairman David Boden said: “The panel considered the matters of fact found proved, in the charges, were sufficiently serious to amount to misconduct.

“It found the features that make these charges serious are that they involved resident who were particularly vulnerable and lacking in the facility the care being provided to them.”

But while Bickerstaff’s actions ‘fell significantly below’ the expected standards of care, it was acknowledged they occurred over one single shift and there had been no previous misconduct incidents during her 30-year plus career.