\n Orla Dillon, a mental health nurse who worked on the Regency Ward at Mill View Hospital in Hove, faced a Nursery and Midwifery Council misconduct hearing between January 26 and 29.\n<\/p>\n
\n The nurse – whose role was equivalent to a deputy ward manager – met the patient while he was “under [her] close care”, the tribunal report said.\n<\/p>\n
\n But she began a relationship with the patient just eight days after he was discharged, during which they had sex and spoke on chess.com.\n<\/p>\n
\n She initially claimed she had \u201cbumped into him in Queen\u2019s Park\u201d before admitting she had \u201cnot been entirely truthful\u201d and revealing the sexual relationship.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ms Dillon expressed “great sorrow” about the relationship and said it was difficult to leave as she “feared for her safety” and was “isolated” by him.\n<\/p>\n
\n The tribunal report said that Ms Dillon started the relationship with the patient on March 27, 2024, after he was discharged on March 19.\n<\/p>\n
\n They exchanged chess.com usernames to \u201ccontinue contact\u201d and met up at various locations such as Queen\u2019s Park, Preston Park and the Level.\n<\/p>\n
\n On March 30, the pair met up at Green Door Store, a live music venue in Brighton, where they \u201cdanced\u201d and \u201ckissed and\/or hugged\u201d before the patient walked her home.\n<\/p>\n
\n They went on to have sex with each other on multiple occasions and stayed overnight at each other\u2019s homes.\n<\/p>\n
\n A day after they began their relationship, the man revealed to his probation officer that he was involved in a relationship with a mental health nurse.\n<\/p>\n
\n On April 2, the nurse completed a statement and said she \u201cstressed the importance of professional boundaries when she \u2018bumped into him\u2019 at Queen\u2019s Park\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n Prior to this, Ms Dillon told her supervisor that the relationship was strictly professional, though she did state she had built a “therapeutic rapport” with him.\n<\/p>\n
\n But she was suspended on April 9. Three days later, Ms Dillon revealed she had \u201cnot been truthful\u201d. She was dismissed on June 20.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ms Dillon admitted to all the charges and said he is now \u201cblocked on all platforms\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n She revealed that it was a \u201cturbulent relationship\u201d and she was \u201cisolated\u201d by him, often discouraged from seeing friends. She said this made it \u201cvery difficult to leave\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n She also expressed \u201cgreat sorrow for failing him as a clinical professional\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n The record of the misconduct hearing states: \u201cYou stated that through embarking on a relationship with someone with who it was your role to protect and to care for, you breached boundaries and fractured the trust of a patient under the healthcare system.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cYou said that you understand that Patient A\u2019s trust and engagement with future therapeutic relationships is going to be \u2018really\u2019 affected.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cYou also stated that you are aware that Patient A will have an identified risk on his record, which will impact the type of care that he receives, and the way risks assessments will be conducted, in the future.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cYou said that you have great sorrow for failing him as a clinical professional.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n The panel heard Ms Dillon has since undertaken \u201ca lot of mandatory training in relation to professional boundaries, professional relationships and supporting clients\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n This includes a private training course in May 2024 which \u201chelped [her] reflect\u201d. She then attempted to end the relationship, but it \u201ctook a few attempts of leaving as [she] had a fear for [her] own safety\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n The panel found that the relationship, which ended in November 2024, amounted to misconduct.\n<\/p>\n
\n She was issued a suspension order of 12 months and an interim suspension order of 18 months as her \u201cfitness to practice is impaired\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orla Dillon, a mental health nurse who worked on the Regency Ward at Mill View Hospital in Hove,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[134,554,555,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-276560","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mentalhealth","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}