Christie Nonye Okwaraji was placed under a serious review regarding her competency in 2021 after she made several blunders on the job within a six-month period, often revolving around recording or administering patient medication.
After five reviews of the original conditions of practice order, on Wednesday, July 8, she was finally struck off from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register after a panel of nurses found her fitness to practise was “impaired by reason of lack of competence”.
Mrs Okwaraji, who represented herself, was found on several occasions to have failed to follow specific instructions, carry out checks and escalate clear risks.
The panel also proved reports she failed to act when a patient told her they were in pain, and on another unknown date, she did not change a patient’s soiled dressing “despite having been asked by the patient to do so”.
Between August 2018 and February 2019, the nurse failed to show she understood drug codes on medication charts, which led to inaccurate record-keeping.
On another occasion she did not send medication home with a patient despite clear instructions from the pharmacy to do so.
In one incident, after being told a patient’s nasogastric tube had accidentally come out, she did not put it back on or even escalate this with a colleague.
In the five years she was under the conditions of practice order, Mrs Okwaraji was required to be under strict supervision at all times while on shift and to never administer medication without direct supervision.
She was also told to uphold strict reporting with the NMC, such as informing her case officer within days of starting or leaving any job or training programme, and to always let her employers know her competency was under review.
Mrs Okwaraji failed to fulfil any of these conditions. The nurse claimed she had submitted 30 job applications for NHS and agency roles over the previous six months, but was yet to receive any offers. Instead, she had accepted a position as a healthcare assistant.
The panel concluded that despite being given four years of restrictions and review hearings to show she was fit to practise or improving, her incompetency “undermined fundamental tenets of the profession” and left patients at risk.
Mrs Okwaraji will be officially removed from the register of qualified nurses on August 17, 2026.