Karen Jane Makinson
Introduction
Karen Jane Makinson is a registered nurse who was suspended for twelve months by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) on 11 September 2026, after a Fitness to Practise Committee panel found that on 4 June 2024 she attended work under the influence of alcohol and unfit to carry out nursing duties safely — while she was the nurse in charge, and the only nurse, on a night shift responsible for more than 30 vulnerable residents, some receiving end-of-life care. The panel found impairment but considered the misconduct potentially remediable, and imposed the suspension with a review and an 18-month interim suspension covering the appeal period .
Background Information
The incident date was 4 June 2024. The panel found that Makinson attended work under the influence of alcohol and unfit to carry out her duties safely, made illegible signatures on a patient’s medication chart, and staggered or swayed while walking. Two further allegations — of incorrect paracetamol and pregabalin stock counts — were not proved, and the panel drew no adverse inference from her non-attendance when deciding the facts .
The setting amplified everything: she was the nurse in charge and the only nurse on site, on a night shift, in a home with over 30 vulnerable residents including some receiving end-of-life care. There was no second nurse to absorb the risk she brought through the door .
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Adjudicated (regulatory). The findings below were made by an NMC panel on the balance of probabilities — a civil standard, not a criminal conviction. The stock-count allegations were not proved.
The proved conduct was the attendance itself: a nurse on duty, in charge, intoxicated. The panel found misconduct and impairment on public protection and public interest grounds. It found a risk of repetition and no evidence of insight or remediation — but considered the misconduct potentially remediable and striking off disproportionate at this stage, imposing a twelve-month suspension with a review .
The panel’s aggravating analysis set out why the setting made the conduct so serious. Makinson was, in its findings, “the nurse in charge and the only nurse on a night shift with over 30 vulnerable residents in her care including some who were receiving end of life care”. In attempting to provide clinical care while intoxicated to the extent she was, she “would have been unlikely to recognise a deteriorating patient or respond appropriately if an emergency situation arose”, placing vulnerable residents at risk of significant harm. Her colleagues then had to dedicate significant time to dealing with the situation and ensuring she got home safely — a diversion from their normal roles that redirected care away from vulnerable residents and placed them at unwarranted risk of harm .
Two allegations did not survive the hearing: the claimed incorrect paracetamol and pregabalin stock counts were found not proved. The medication-chart signatures she made that night were found illegible — part of the proved picture of a nurse unable to perform even the record-keeping basics of a shift .
Public Reaction and Consequences
The outcome is a twelve-month suspension, with an 18-month interim suspension covering the appeal period and a review attached to the substantive order. If no appeal is made, the substantive suspension replaces the interim order 28 days after written notification. The panel’s refusal to strike Makinson off despite finding no insight and no remediation turned on its view that alcohol-related misconduct of this kind is potentially remediable — the register can be protected by suspension while the underlying problem is addressed .
The case is recorded in the NMC’s 2026 suspension list. No public statement from the care home or from Makinson appears in the fetched record beyond the determination itself .
Current Status
Makinson is a suspended nurse. The twelve-month suspension was imposed on 11 September 2026 at the end of a hearing that ran from 7 September, with the review attached and the interim order covering the appeal window. The panel found a risk of repetition and no evidence of insight or remediation — findings that place the burden squarely on her at any future review, because the panel has already considered the alternative outcomes and left her on the register only conditionally .
Impact on Their Career/Life
The proved findings describe a single night but a career-defining failure: the one nurse on the premises, responsible for more than thirty residents including the dying, unfit through alcohol. The panel’s assessment that colleagues had to shepherd her home instead of tending residents gives the record its practical edge — the risk did not stay hypothetical.
The route back exists but is narrow. The panel found no insight and no remediation as of the hearing, and said so in terms; potential remediable-ness is a judgement about the condition, not credit for work already done. At the review, Makinson will need to show both addressed alcohol dependence and insight into the night of 4 June 2024 — before the regulator restores a registration that once made her the only nurse standing between thirty vulnerable residents and an empty night shift .