A dental nurse has been suspended after sharing posts on Facebook that made ‘negative and divisive’ comments about non-white racial groups.
The DCP was suspended for eight months after allegations were admitted and proved in a GDC Professional Conduct Committee tribunal.
In June 2020, the committee heard that the dental nurse posted and/or shared on their personal Facebook account memes, comments, articles and/or images of a discriminatory nature. It was found proved that these were ‘inappropriate’ and ‘racially motivated’.
The committee had sight of all the Facebook posts and noted a theme to the type of material being shared the account across a significant period of time. This pre-dated and extended into the COVID-19 lockdown.
The report reads: ‘Some of the posts are more overt in their racial component than others, but the committee could clearly identify posts that made negative and divisive comments about a range of non-white racial groups, typically asserting them to be non-British and frequently identifying those from the Islamic community in an offensive racial context.’
‘Brainwashed’
It added that the sharing the posts on the Facebook account was a ‘positive endorsement’. There was evidence that the dental nurse clicked the ‘thumbs up’ approval icon.
The committee was also satisfied that they had responded to the invitation ‘share if you agree’. The Committee found it more likely than not that by pressing a share button, the dental nurse would have known that these posts were being shared as an invitation for others to approve.
According to the report, the dental nurse explained that they were drinking alcohol at the time while on annual leave during COVID in 2020. They also claimed they had limited proficiency in using Facebook and that they had been ‘brainwashed’.
However, the committee was ‘not persuaded’ by these reasons. It noted that they had not mentioned alcohol in the local investigation into their conduct. It also pointed out that several of the posts in question pre-dated COVID and the period in which they claimed to have been drinking.
‘Serious’ conduct
‘There is no evidence before the committee to indicate that [their] drinking would have sufficiently impaired judgement,’ the report said.
‘[They] still had the intent to share posts on [their] social media and there is no suggestion that it was done accidentally.’
The committee was satisfied that the dental nurse’s conduct was serious and considered that the posts she shared were inappropriate and racially motivated. It heard that the posts had also caused distress to a colleague.
As a result, it found the actions were a ‘significant departure from the standards expected of a registered dental professional’ and determined the facts found proved amount to misconduct.
The committee gave ‘careful consideration’ to the option of erasure but determined that such a step would be ‘disproportionate and unnecessary’.
The dental nurse was suspended for eight months, which it deemed enough time for them to ‘reflect sufficiently on the issues raised in this case and take the appropriate action’.
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