NURSE Gloria Ndema stole drugs from City Hospital to try to save her dying brother.
She was sacked after being found with a plastic bag full of antibiotics, laxatives and iron tablets taken from a ward.
The former staff nurse planned to send them to her seriously-ill brother in Malawi, but he died before they could be posted.
Miss Ndema appeared before the Nursing and Midwifery Council last week after ten boxes of the drugs were found at her home in Hilcot Drive, Aspley.
The council heard that she stole the drugs after her sister, who lives in Malawi, described their brother's symptoms.
Speaking at the hearing, Miss Ndema – who admitted she had taken the drugs without authorisation – said she "decided to take the medicine to send to my brother to help him." She was "faced with a very difficult situation" and said that taking the drugs was "the only choice" as her family could not afford to buy them in Africa.
Miss Ndema accepted it was dangerous to send medicines without diagnosis.
The council heard that she was "ashamed" of her actions and felt she had let her children down by stealing.
Representing the Nursing and Midwifery Council, Jessica Holmes told the panel that Miss Ndema's behaviour constituted misconduct and that her fitness to practise was impaired.
Miss Holmes also said that trust, honesty and integrity were cornerstones of nursing.
Despite finding Miss Ndema's fitness to practise impaired, the panel said there were mitigating factors – that the drugs had been for her dying brother, that she was under stress, and that patients were not put at risk. The panel gave her a five-year caution, which does not prevent her from working – she now practises as an agency nurse,
Miss Ndema, who worked in adult critical care, was suspended on February 9 last year, two days after the drugs had been found in her home. She was dismissed from Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust in May 2012.
Daniel Mortimer, director of workforce and strategy at the trust, said: "We take any case of theft from our hospitals extremely seriously. We are satisfied the trust took appropriate action in a timely way."
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