A north-east nursery nurse has been sanctioned for misconduct after she was found guilty of laughing at a child’s injury, lying about an accident and using offensive language and gestures to co-workers in front of youngsters.
A panel of the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) was told Lynne Cattanach, 54, committed the acts at Hoodles Childcare, Oldmeldrum, between February 2013 and 2014 when she was employed as a senior nursery nurse.
A warning was placed on Mrs Cattanach’s registration record for a year following the two-day conduct sub-committee hearing in Dundee this week.
The panel heard that on February 28, 2013, she had made a joke about a child’s injury and failed to explain to the parent the circumstances that caused it.
On July 7 of the same year, she recorded on an accident reporting form that she had witnessed an accident when she had not.
The incidents were branded “dishonest”.
On February 19, 2014, Mrs Cattanach used a foul four-letter word to describe a colleague to another worker at the nursery while in the presence of children.
She then made a rude gesture, again in front of youngsters in the nursery playroom.
In its notice, the conduct sub-committee said: “she did demonstrate an unacceptable disregard for colleagues’ wellbeing and did cause, or was likely to cause, distress to (the colleague) and any service users who were present and put her and them at risk of emotional harm.”
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Social Services Council said: “The outcome was that misconduct was found and the sanction was to place a warning on the registration record for a year.”
A spokeswoman for Hoodles Childcare said previously that Mrs Cattanach was no longer employed at the nursery.
When contacted yesterday the nursery declined to comment.
Mrs Cattanach could not be reached for comment yesterday.