A Maidstone care home nurse has been suspended for a year due to her poor grasp of English.

Albena Karagyozova was the subject of a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) misconduct hearing, facing four offences relating to her compassion, communication and safe practice.

The three-person panel heard, in the summer of 2015, Ms Karagyozova was working at Ashley Gardens Care Centre, Sutton Road.

During a shift in July, a colleague, who usually worked elsewhere, asked where the sharps waste bin was and was told by Ms Karagyozova there wasn’t one and she had been disposing of needles in the general waste.

Ms Karagyozova admitted the charge and said she had not felt confident to ask where the bin was herself.

The following month, Ms Karagyozova was providing end-of-life care to a man with Parkinson’s and dementia.

His wife, who was sleeping on his floor as he was unwell, told the panel Ms Karagyozova had become defensive: “When I said to Albena how much easier it looked using the gravity feed, she kind of jumped at me saying ‘you disagree, you disagree’.”

On another occasion, the wife claimed she had to roll out of the way to avoid being trodden on.

The nurse was alleged to have moved the man without help, without speaking to him and in a rough manner which caused him to cry out.

Ms Karagyozova admitted she could have spent more time building a rapport but denied not speaking and said she was very busy. She denied moving the patient alone and incorrectly and was cleared of both charges.

Following an investigation by Ashley Gardens, concerns were raised Ms Karagyozova did not have the necessary knowledge of English to practise safely and effectively and she was sacked in September 2015.

The panel heard that in an English test taken in January she scored five out of nine – in order to practise safely the NMC requires a score of seven.

The NMC found the misconduct serious enough to warrant suspension, which will be reviewed in a year.