Michael Anjo Apruebo
Introduction
Michael Anjo Apruebo is a UK nurse who worked at Royal Derby Hospital and was suspended from the nursing register for six months on 14 May 2026, after a Nursing and Midwifery Council Fitness to Practise Committee found he acted in an aggressive and intimidating manner towards a vulnerable patient with vascular dementia during a night shift in February 2023 — shouting at him, ordering him back to bed and clicking his fingers in his face .
Background Information
The incident unfolded on 24-25 February 2023, involving Patient A, a vulnerable patient with vascular dementia who wanted to go home and call his daughter. The panel found all four charges proved: that Apruebo shouted at the patient; ordered him to “get back to bed”; on one or more occasions clicked his fingers in his face; and said to him “I’m in charge, I’m in charge of the whole ward and I’m recording you”, or words to that effect .
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Adjudicated (regulatory). The findings are the NMC panel’s conclusions on the civil standard.
The panel found the conduct amounted to misconduct, and that Patient A suffered at least psychological harm from it. It found fitness to practise impaired on both public-protection and public-interest grounds — with a detail that shaped the sanction: Apruebo had not engaged with the NMC at all since March 2023, leaving the panel to decide the case on the evidence in front of it without his participation .
The aggravating factors it cited: actual harm caused to Patient A; the risk of harm to other patients and to relatives who witnessed the incidents, which the panel noted may have deterred them from seeking further care; the absence of any evidence of remorse; the vulnerability of the patient; abuse of a position of trust; and very limited insight. The mitigation it recorded was contextual — Apruebo had felt unsupported in the workplace after racial language was used against him previously, including racial language or comments allegedly directed at him by Patient A. The panel weighed that context and still found proved conduct that crossed the line into intimidating a man whose dementia meant he could not navigate the ward he was being shouted through .
On sanction, the panel imposed a six-month suspension order with a review, and an 18-month interim suspension order to cover the appeal period .
Public Reaction and Consequences
The consequence is the six-month suspension and a register record in which a nurse’s own words to a dementia patient — the finger-clicking, the “I’m recording you” line — are quoted in the public determination. The case is recorded in MedicWatch’s listing of nurses suspended in 2026 .
No employer statement or public comment from Apruebo appears in the fetched record beyond the determination .
Current Status
Apruebo is a suspended nurse under a six-month order imposed on 14 May 2026, with a review before it expires and an 18-month interim suspension covering the appeal window. The panel’s harm finding — that the patient suffered at least psychological harm — is part of the permanent record, as is the non-engagement fact: no contact with his regulator for three years by the time of the hearing .
A review held without his engagement will face the same record: no remorse on file, no insight demonstrated, no remediation evidence .
Impact on Their Career/Life
Dementia wards run on the premise that the patient who insists on going home cannot be argued out of it by volume. The panel’s findings describe the opposite: a night-shift nurse meeting a confused man’s insistence with shouting, finger-clicking and a declaration of total authority, in front of relatives. The racial abuse Apruebo had earlier experienced was recorded as context, not excuse — the panel credited it as mitigation while still finding actual harm, no remorse and very limited insight. Six months suspended is the moderate band of the register’s sanctions; the non-engagement is what makes the next review predictable, because nothing in the record suggests anything has been filed on his side of the ledger since March 2023 .