Nurse Who Made Patients Wash His Car

A mental health nurse who made four vulnerable patients wash his car as part of their ‘therapy’ has been struck off. 

Ian Brown, who worked at a care home for male offenders with mental illnesses in Ipswich, claimed the activity was ‘more constructive’ than ‘sitting outside smoking’. 

A Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) misconduct hearing heard his conduct was ‘deplorable’ and ‘breached the fundamental tenets’ of the nursing profession.

Mr Brown qualified as a nurse in February 2018 but concerns were raised about his ‘unprofessional behaviour’ towards both colleagues and patients at his first job.

An inquiry was conducted as a consequence, and Brown received one last written warning.

He was then redeployed to Foxhall House, in Ipswich in January 2019 and was required to undertake a development plan for six months – which focused on ‘values and behaviours’.

However, in August 2019, he took four residents – all of which were sectioned under the Mental Health Act – to clean his car.

A colleague: ‘I was on the late shift. In handover there was nothing to report that he [Mr Brown] was taking the patients out to wash his car, it wasn’t discussed.

‘[Mr Brown] said it was therapy.’

Another witness said: ‘He came into the handover room and while I was handing over said that he had a job for the patients that afternoon and would be having them wash his car.’

The disciplinary panel heard only two of the four patients had permission to leave.

The hearing was also told that Mr Brown responded to a disciplinary allegation by saying: ‘I believe it’s more constructive to wash a car than sit outside smoking.’

Mr Brown was also found to have left a gate open in September 2021, meaning a patient was able to ‘abscond’ before ‘luckily’ staff were able to get him back.

In November 2020, he was reported to the Nursing and Midwifery Council after he submitted his resignation in October 2019.

The panel concluded Mr Brown’s conduct amounted to ‘serious misconduct involving numerous vulnerable residents’ and potentially members of the public which occurred over some time.

‘[We] determined that this is conduct that showed a flagrant disregard to the Code and would be considered deplorable by fellow nurses as well as an ordinary informed member of the public,’ they said.

‘The panel finds that vulnerable residents, visitors, members of the public and colleagues were put at risk of physical and emotional harm as a result of Mr Brown’s misconduct.

To be fair, the car cleaning exercise was a good idea, but not for the reason that this nurse got the patients to do it. More needs to be done for mental health patients and they need to do meaningful activities when they can or even if they can. Not all mental health patients could even do life-building skills et cetera.

We wouldn’t anticipate a cleaning exercise for a patient with mental health issues, and a nurse shouldn’t decide what’s best for a patient. Each mental health patient needs different things, and this nurse did not seek permission from those responsible for the patient’s welfare.

Also, if this was thought of as a good idea, then it should be structured, and there should have been a reward system put in place for the patients to attend, and there should have been a second nurse present.

There is nothing like being used and abused when a nurse takes it upon themselves to have a patient clean his car because he can’t be bothered.

Mental health patients should be given the freedom to decide whether or not to do these duties, and they should have a secure environment in which to do so.

It does sound very patronising when patients are being given rewards, but they also need structure, but more often than not they’re not rewards or structure, they command which is very patronising to an adult patient who is being treated like a child.