A NURSE has been struck off after telling patients at a mental health hospital that she was going to come to work ‘dressed as a sexy Santa’.

Debbie Mcdonald also wrote a sexually charged poem ‘inspired by’ a resident at Lea Court Treatment and Recovery Centre in Dallam, with whom she was caught in a compromising situation in the patient’s bed.

Last week, she was stuck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council during a hearing in London.

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The week-long hearing, which ran from June 25 to July 2, was told that Ms Mcdonald worked at the 26-bed Hawleys Lane independent mental health hospital between 2011 and 2016.

At around 2.45am on the night of November 30 2016, Ms Mcdonald was seen by a fellow nurse sitting on Resident A's bed on top of him with her legs 'wide open' in a dark room.

Ms Mcdonald, who was not present or represented at the hearing, told her co-worker that she was having a 'one-to-one session' with the patient as he was upset about a meeting he was due to attend the following day.

In an email sent by the witness to a senior nurse practitioner shortly before 3am on that night, the nurse said she was 'really shocked' by what she had seen.

A number of members of staff had raised concerns around Ms Mcdonald's behaviour in the weeks leading up to this incident.

The panel heard that she had Ms Mcdonald had shown two co-workers a poem she had written at work 'inspired by Resident A' - which referred to a married woman who was having an affair, a man 'caressing her breasts' and the female having 'butterflies in her stomach'.

On another occasion, she arrived for a night shift with ice cream which she stated was for her 'date night' with Resident A and Resident B - the three then sat in the communal lounge watching television and eating ice cream.

Ahead of a Christmas jumper day at the hospital in December 2016, Ms Mcdonald mentioned that she would dress as a 'sexy Santa' to other staff who assumed it was 'office banter'.

But later in the month, after Ms Mcdonald had gone on sick leave, Resident A and Resident B asked when she was coming in dressed as a sexy Santa.

The NMC panel found that her the registered mental health nurse's behaviour was 'sexually motivated', and that she had 'cynically abused two vulnerable residents'.

Over a period of several weeks, Ms Mcdonald 'repeatedly abused her position of trust and failed to maintain proper professional boundaries'.

Striking Ms Mcdonald off, panel chairman Ilana Tessler said: “The panel concluded that Ms Mcdonald’s behaviour was a serious departure from the relevant professional standards.

“She deliberately acted in a way which she knew had the potential to cause harm to Resident A and Resident B, who were at the very least emotionally vulnerable.

“A number of the charges proved relate to sexually motivated behaviour.

“Further, Ms Mcdonald has shown a persistent lack of insight into the effect her behaviour has had on the residents at the centre, her colleagues and the wider nursing profession.

“Taking into account all of the above and the context in which the misconduct occurred, the panel concluded that a striking off order was the only sanction which is sufficient to protect the public and the public interest.”

A spokesman for Alternative Futures Group, which runs Lea Court, added: “Following an incident, the details were immediately reported to our safeguarding function and the relevant authorities - including the NMC.

“The nurse did not cooperate with our disciplinary procedures, and subsequently resigned.”