Nurses played on phones while patient, 22, hanged herself
The nurses had been caught on camera with their feet up looking at holidays and playing music.
A vulnerable young woman took her own life at a secure unit when two mental health nurses failed to carry out six checks before her death, a court has heard.
Lauren Ellis, 22, was deemed a high suicide risk so was meant to be checked every 15 minutes by nurses Rory McDermott, 32, and Naomi Prestidge, 31.
However, footage showed them with their feet up, playing on their phones, looking up holidays and playing music.
When they eventually found Lauren’s body in October 2017 they then panicked and put false entries into a log book, The Royal Court of Guernsey heard.
Lauren had admitted herself to the Oberlands Mental Health Centre just a day before her death.
The last check was carried out at 1am on October 12 and Prestidge only noticed her body as she walked past her room while heading to the canteen nearly two hours later.
They attempted CPR until an ambulance arrived but she was declared dead shortly before 4am.
Crown Advocate Chris Dunford said both McDermott and Prestidge, who deny manslaughter through gross negligence, knew about Lauren’s history of self-harm.
However, he said that the standard of care had ‘fallen off a cliff.’
Miss Ellis had required hospital treatment because of her self-harming five times in the six days prior to her death.
Psychiatrist Dr Geraldine O’Sullivan who visited the ward after Lauren’s death discovered that nurses did not check on patients as frequently as they should.
She also said a care plan was not put in place when Lauren was admitted and the bandaging of her self harm wound had not been communicated.
Prestidge told police she had had a busy week of night shifts and might have switched off at the time.
She accepted making entries in the observation check record list but said she had done so in the belief that the checks had been done.
McDermott said he thought Lauren had fallen asleep by 1am and he went to help colleagues on another ward.
Mr Dunford said the ward was not under resourced and there was a process to enable staff to make complaints.
The trial continues.
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