McDonald's date offer hospital nurse sacked
BBCA nurse who called a patient "pretty", asked which of her and her siblings was the "sexiest" and offered to take her to McDonald's has been sacked.
Eugene Zuniga also accessed her records to obtain her phone number while he was working as a nurse at the James Paget University Hospital in Norfolk in 2017.
A misconduct panel found his actions were "sexually motivated".
The Nursing and Midwifery Council suspended Mr Zuniga for 12 months and the hospital dismissed him.
The council panel found he made "inappropriate and unprofessional" comments to the "vulnerable" patient at the Gorleston-based hospital between 27 and 29 November 2017.
'Want to meet?'
He told the patient "I don't know why your partner would not want to be with you as you are so pretty" and asked her "How many siblings do you have? Who is the sexiest of the three?".
Mr Zuniga asked for her phone number, and said "I will see you soon".
The patient had not given Mr Zuniga her number and said she was "surprised" when on 2 December he called her to ask "Do you still want to meet? We could go to McDonald's."
The panel said the "most likely explanation" for getting her number was from her paper records.
He made three other calls to her phone on 5 December 2017, the panel found, and it was "satisfied that your conduct could only be sexually motivated".
Mr Zuniga's representative said he had "a fundamental failure to recognise where boundaries were" and when they had been crossed.
He sent a letter of apology to the patient and has undertaken training.
The trust's director of nursing Julia Hunt said: "The trust took action as soon as the complaint was received, conducting a full investigation which resulted in a disciplinary hearing.
"The nurse concerned was dismissed and the matter referred to the Nursing and Midwifery Council."
