On November 10th,  Margaret Haywood, a nurse in the UK, won the patient’s choice award at the  Nursing Standard Nurse of the Year Awards. She was described as having demonstrated “outstanding nursing qualities and a willingness to go the extra mile”.

Margaret’s award is all the more significant because for the last four years she has been under intense scrutiny, and was even barred from practicing, due to her decision to  to blow the whistle on serious lapses in care of the elderly at the Royal Sussex Hospital in Brighton, England.

Margaret Haywood (www.independent.co.uk)

In April 2009 Margaret was struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council in the UK after they determined that her decision to participate in an undercover documentary by BBC’s Panorama in 2005 went against patient confidentiality and her nursing duties.  In the documentary, Ms. Haywood, who had more than 20 years experience nursing,  said, “Seeing this kind of care makes me feel angry, it makes me ashamed of my profession. We’re talking about basic human needs here, basic nursing care.”

A massive public outcry against this ruling resulted in Ms. Haywood being reinstated on October 13th of this year. Ms. Haywood had the backing not only of the general public, but also special interest groups such as Action against Medical Accidents and Patient Concern,whose co-director Joyce Robins has this to say:

“The only complaint against Margaret Haywood came from the NHS Trust – the very organisation that allowed elderly people to be kept in subhuman conditions and were seriously embarrassed when their negligence was revealed to the public. Which nurse would you trust – the one who blew the whistle and saved suffering, or the ones who went to work each day, saw the appalling treatment, and did nothing?”

The Nursing and Midwifery Council now say that whistle blowing is a difficult decision for any nurse, and says they are working on guidelines that will help those who wish to raise concerns.

Go here to see the BBC article on this, with a link to the video from the Panorama show. [Note that some of the video may be disturbing to some viewers.]