A nurse who worked in hospitals for 20 years has been suspended for six months after he repeated a ‘deeply shocking’ joke he claimed was by Ricky Gervais to a colleague.
James Murray said the misogynistic line ‘if they bleed, they can breed’ when discussing the sexual maturity of children with a work friend.
He defended himself at Fife Hospital by saying he was ‘not the author’ of the line and was merely ‘repeating’ a sketch by comedian Mr Gervais.
The hospital, denying his explanation, brought the case before a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) tribunal, where Mr Murray was subsequently suspended for misconduct.
Mr Murray worked as a nurse for 20 years at St Andrews Hospital, Fife, and Fife Hospital, Fife, and otherwise had a clean record.
The nurse’s misconduct took place over the course of a day and began while he was discussing staffing with a colleague in July 2022.
The conversation ended with Mr Murray shouting offensive language at a female nurse and sticking two fingers up at her.
This left the colleague feeling ‘belittled’ as she was surrounded by other members of staff while abuse was shouted at her.
Rickey Gervais pictured on his latest Netflix special Mortality which came out in December last year
After being reprimanded by a manager, Mr Murray proceeded to complain to a separate colleague about the woman he had publicly embarrassed.
Mr Murray claimed to have acknowledged his actions were wrong at the time and told the tribunal, held last week: ‘I accept the fact that my behaviour was highly unprofessional, was quite rightly seen to be intimidating and could potentially be seen as being bullying, but that was never my intention.’
However the panel members rejected this claim, stating he had a ‘requisite conscious objective or desire to bully, intimidate, or undermine’ his colleague.
After shouting at his co-worker, Mr Murray continued to have a ‘highly inappropriate and unprofessional conversation of a sexual nature involving children’ with another colleague later that day while in earshot of patients.
Two members of staff overheard the pair, and one told the tribunal the ‘deeply shocking and inappropriate’ conversation started with a discussion on who at the hospital had contracted Covid.
Mr Murray told his colleague, who was also his friend, he had probably caught Covid from him, to which the colleague replied: ‘Yep probably when I s****** you up the a***.’
The nurse responded it would rather be the other way around, leading the colleague to make a crude comment about children.
Mr Murray replied: ‘If they bleed, they can breed’.
The nurse who overheard these words told the tribunal she thought it was ‘really disgusting’ and ‘entirely inappropriate’ – and said the pair did not allude to having heard the joke elsewhere.
She added: ‘You don’t know anybody’s backstory and it particularly upset me.
‘They didn’t mention they were relaying a joke they had heard.’
Mr Murray told the panel the conversation had been ‘misconstrued or misinterpreted’ by the two colleagues who overheard it.
He continued: ‘I think [my colleague] had started talking about it and then, you know, we were teasing each other with stupid answers.
‘Neither myself nor [my colleague] were the authors of this.
‘We didn’t make this particular joke up. We were repeating the joke or interpreting the joke.’
However the panel rejected his defence and said ‘such language has no place in a professional healthcare setting’ which ‘aggravated its seriousness’, while Mr Murray ‘demonstrated a serious lack of judgment’.
It added: ‘[The act] was capable of causing shock and distress to colleagues, risked reputational damage to the profession, and was inconsistent with the standards expected of a registered nurse.’
The incident ‘risked [the] reputational damage to the profession’ of nursing, it said, and would have ‘significantly shocked and concerned’ a patient.
It deemed the suspension of Mr Murray was needed due to the ‘range of highly inappropriate behaviour’ which included ‘sexualised comments concerning children’, marking a ‘very serious breach of professional boundaries and fundamental tenets of the profession’.
It added: ‘The panel has considered this case carefully and has decided to make a suspension order for a period of six months.’
NHS Fife have been contacted for comment.